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 98
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A Republican in his political affiliations, he is sought to contribute by public address to the success of the party, his efforts in that direction having won for him many commendatory expressions.
On the 28th day of March, 1900, he was admitted to the bar of the United States court, before which tribunal he has appeared in several large and important cases. He is now located in the Iroquois building, where he has one of the finest furnished and best equipped law offices in the state.
Mr. Trook is a member of the Masonic, Knights of Pythias and B. P. O. E. Fra- ternities. He is also a member of the Marion Commercial Club, designed to further the interests of the city. He also has extensive landed interests in the county and is one of Marion's wide-awake business men.
HON. JASPER A. GAUNTT.
A history of the leading men of Grant county, Indiana, would fall short of its ob- ject did it not include the name of Jasper A. Gauntt, of Marion, whose remarkable physical energy and mental ability has placed him prominently before the people and drawn to him a great many unswerving friends. He is a native of Grant county, having opened his eyes to the light of day in Liberty township, near Fairmount, Feb- 47
ruary 3, 1850, in the home of Retel J. and Sarah ( Beals) Gauntt. His great-grandfa- ther, Charles Gauntt, was born in New Jer- sey and belonged to one of the old English families who sought a home in the wilds of America during her earliest colonization. He migrated south and finally located in South Carolina, where he married and reared a family. Among the children born to him was Samuel K., the grandfather of Hon. Jasper A., who was reared to manhood in that state and went to Tennessee, where he married and lived for many years. In 1849 he came to this county with his son Reuel, and passed the remaining eight or nine years of his life, dying at the age of sixty-nine.
Reuel J. Gauntt was born in the state of Tennessee, where he was married to Miss Sarah Beals, a native of the same state. After marriage he turned his back on the south and came to Indiana, where in May, 1849, he entered government land near Fair- mount, which he improved and made his home until his death in 1889, when in his sixty-fifth year. He was a strong Repub- lican, an active politician and one of the representative men of his township. He was elected to the office of justice of the peace in 1852 and continued in that capacity until 1868, a peidod of sixteen years, and wsa then honored by being chosen as county treasurer, of which office he was an incum- bent four years. During this time, while serving as treasurer, he moved to Marion, returning to his farm at the expiration of his official term. He was quite successful in life and achieved this prosperity after com- ing to Indiana, as his capital when he reached here was but eighty dollars and the wagon in which the trip was made. His in-
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domitable will would brook no obstacle, and the first abode of the family was a tent pitched by the side of a large log. A log cabin was built as soon as possible and into this they moved, quite content to put up with the small inconveniences of life in order to gain greater good eventually.
Mr. Gauntt was made a Mason in the lodge at Jonesboro and raised to the chapter at Marion. His wife was a Quakeress in her religious belief and died in middle age in 1879, when about fifty years old. Four children were born to them, viz. : Jasper A .; Mary E., who died when about thirty-eight years of age; Martha, who is the wife of Jason Biddleman, of Gas City ; and one child who died in infancy.
Jasper A. Guantt was educated in the public school, and at the age of seventeen he was employed to teach his home school, where the average attendance was sixty and the scholars were all his old schoolmates, the most severe test which could have been put to his ability. ' But he was found not wanting, and so general was the satisfaction given by him that he was hired to teach the following winter-1868 and 1869. When his term of school had expired he entered the high school at Jonesboro and after his father took charge of the office of county treasurer he was an able assistant, installed as deputy. He also taught another winter term of school and later accepted the position as bookkeeper in the bank of Jason Willson & Company. This varied and constant em- ployment served to brighten his intellect and keep him in touch with the prominent men of the county as well as giving him an insight into business matters that has been of inestimable value to him.
Ever on the alert to take advantage of
each opportunity that offered for self-im- provement, Jasper A. Gauntt spent the time not needed in his work in the treasurer's office in assisting in the work of the auditor and clerk and soon became perfectly familiar with the routine of county work. J. H. Nelson was the successor of the elder Gauntt to the office of treasurer from 1873 to 1875, our subject acting as deputy under him, and also under Isaiah M. Cox, who was the incumbent from 1875 to 1877. About this time he embarked in the grain and stock business in partnership with Mr. Lillard, under the firm name of Lillard & Gauntt, and from 1879 to 1885 made ex- tensive shipments of both stock and grain. at the same time taking the management of the home farm. A position as bookkeeper and assistant cashier in the Jason Willson Bank being again tendered him he entered that service, where he remained until 1889 when he resigned to take charge of the post- office, to which he had been appointed. His tenure of office lasted four years and was fraught with many beneficial results, the office being moved into new quarters and a free delivery established during his adminis- tration. His affable and courteous treat- ment of patrons making him popular with the public, and it was with sincere regret that they saw him retire from this position.
Mr. Gauntt then turned his attention to the manufacture of fruit jars at Converse, this state, being associated with William Feighur and Wilson Addington. The com- pany employed about one hundred men and was under the direct management of Mr. Gauntt who was also president of the com- pany until he sold out in 1896 after three years of profitable work. He was a prime mover in establishing the Marion Telephone
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Company, in 1896, and was the efficient man- ager of that organization until 1898 when he resigned to accept the position now held by him, that of deputy revenue collector for the sixth division of the sixth district of Indiana, comprising nine counties with headquarters at Marion.
He has been active in all measures that would promote the general good and has the interest of the people at heart. He was an organizer and director of the Marion Tran- sit Company, one of many movements which was brought to life through his encourage- ment and enterprise. He has been an ardent Republican since he cast his maiden vote for Ulysses S. Grant, and is one of the most prominent and popular politicians in this part of the state, and in 1901 represented Grant county in the state legislature. Honorable ad fair-minded his actions are above sus- picion and his life above reproach. He was chairman of the central committee in 1892; four years later was placed on the executive committee.
In 1889 he was engaged in managing the farm and enjoyed the distinction of bringing the first herd of registered Jersey cattle to the connty. For a number of years he was connected with the Grant county Fair Asso- ciation, holding all the offices in the asso- ciation, and was also active in organizing the Fairmount fair. At the age of twenty- two he was honored by being selected a dele- gate to the state convention, and the confi- dence reposed in his integrity and sagacity has never been misplaced or betrayed. He is a prominent Mason and has been exalted to the degree of Knight Templar. In re- ligion he is an ernest believer in the doc- trine of the Friends church, to which he be- longs.
Mr. Gaunt married May 2, 1876, Miss AAdaline Evans, of New Castle, who is an earnest worker in the Methodist Episcopal church. They have but one child, Edith, who graduated from the Marion high school and is now a student in the state university at Bloomington, Indiana. The family are among the most prominent in the county, have many friends and enjoy an unusual de- gree of popularity.
WILLIS CAMMACK.
Of those men to whom much credit is due for the present improved condition of the public highways of Grant county, few are deserving of greater consideration than he whose name stands as introductory to this paragraph. More than half of the greatest century in the world's history, and during which time all that is in Grant county has been made, has this gentleman resided within the limits of the county, having come here in 1849, when but a lad of sixteen years.
The birth of Willis Cammack took place October 7, 1833, in Bartholomew county, Indiana, and his boyhood was spent in Ran- dolph and Wayne counties, where his peo- ple moved when when he was one year old and stayed. His parents were James and Peninah (Cook) Cammack, he being native to Ohio, and she born in North Carolina. Both families are found to be of English origin, and both were among those early fol- lowers of the martyred Fox, who were forced «to flee from their native land to avoid the re- ligious persecution of which the Society of Friends were the victims. They sought refuge in Scotland, where religious freedom was enjoyed by them to a greater degree, the
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Scots being thoroughly occupied in persecut- ing each other. That the world moves is shown by the fact that in the last days of the nineteenth century, after six hundred years of fanaticism and contention, the factions of the regular and "free kirks" having over- looked their past viciousness and contention, have become one body, celebrating the event with the most enthusiastic demonstrations by processions that rival those of their great- est enemy, the Catholic church. When the antagonism of the Scots to each other al- lowed them a chance to persecute the Friends, they found it necessary to seek other fields, which they did by coming to America where they hoped for greater lib- erty.
James and Peninah Cammack were mar- ried in Wayne county, soon after made their home in Randolph county, and there resided! during the greater part of the boyhood of Willis, and until they came to Grant coun- ty. The father had erected a mill at Spart- ansburgh, Randolph county, and upon com- ing to this section built one where the present village of Fairmount now stands, but which at that time was not a hamlet, only one house. After operating that mill for some time the father built a second mill at Oak Ridge, three miles west of Fairmount and which he operated until 1856, when he re- moved to a farm in Hamilton county, where he passed the remainder of a busy life, pass- ing to reward that comes to the honest and upright man in 1800, at the age of seventy- five. The mother of Willis had gone before, while he still lived at Fairmount. the lady who then became his wife being a widow Jay whose maiden name was Pierson, and who survived her husband some three years. Of the eight children born to the mother of
Willis, two died young and but two-Willis and Clarkson-reached the age of thirty. The one son by the second marriage is Prof. Ira T. Cammack, a popular teacher in the public schools of Kansas City, Missouri, where he holds the esteem of the people to a commendable degree. The old Hamilton county homestead is still retained by the three sons.
Willis, as it were, grew up in the mill, assisting in the building of the one at Fair- mount, and becoming a partner with his fa- ther in that at Oak Ridge. He was married in 1855, to Miss Sarah Jay, of Jonesboro, and the next year went with his father to Hamilton county. Two years later he bought a small farm in Mill township, and in 1863 purchased a farm adjoining the present home in Liberty, though it was some twenty years later that he secured the present farm. This he has greatly improved making it a most desirable and convenient country home.
For twenty years Mr. Cammack has been identified with the public works of the coun- ty, his first enterprise of that character being a stretch of seven miles of pike road in Jeff- erson and Fairmount townships. In this he was associated with David Overman and Isaac Carter, and the result proving to their mutual satisfaction, that the connection has continued to the present. Not less than one hundred miles of pike have been constructed by them in Grant, Miami. Howard and Blackford counties, in each instance the work being done with such a regard to the specifi- cations that their reputation as careful con- structors has constantly grown and broad- ened. The actual details of supervision have generally been in the hands of Mr. Cammack, to which his personality has seemed to peculiarly fit him. Having over-
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sight of hundreds of men, it has required the exercise of skill and tact to so conduct the operations that no conflict of authority has resulted and that harmonious relations have continued not only among themselves but with the many workmen.
For some years Mr. Cammack has be- side the general contracting above mentioned, been engaged in the construction of street, sewer and drainage work. Charles Vermil- lion is associated with him in some of this work, but more especially that of the sewer line, in which they have during the present year over a mile in process on con- struction in Marion. During the twenty years that he has been actively engaged in general contracting the business has proven quite remunerative, a comfortable home and income with easy competence and living being assured.
Despite the publicity under which all this contract work has been done and the tendency on the part of critics to detect open- ings for censure, to the credit of Mr. Cam- mack can it be said that no shadow or stain of jobbery or questionable transaction in connection with any of these numerous pub- lic contracts ; but on the other hand, the most careful inspection and investigation has ever been invited by the firm. Mr. Cammack has also been called upon to serve the public, no- tably during the war, when the demand was great upon the trustee, the duties requiring attention to the widows and families of deceased soldiers. He has been a Republi- can since the birth of the party, having cast his first vote for John C. Fremont in 1856.
After living as his helpmeet upwards of a quarter of a century Mrs. Sarah (Jay) Cam- mack passed over the border land to an eter- nal rest. She who succeeded this lady at the
hearthside was Lizzie Cornelius, widow of Albert Cammack the younger brother of Willis.
The first family consisted of Bayard T; Rosella is the wife of Orange Peters, of Marion; Flora Alice is Mrs. Evan H. Ferree, of whom separate mention is found elsewhere; William is the county clerk; Ella is the wife of William Wag- goner of Marion, Indiana, and Edgar is a practical dentist in New York City; a daughter, Laverna, is a young lady of fifteen, still in the family circle. Mr. Cammack was reared within the precincts of the Society of Friends, holding a membership with the Con- gregation at Bethel which stands near his own home, and which he assisted in organiz- ing in 1864, and in which he has held official position constantly since. His first mar- riage was in accordance with the regulations of the Society, the simple but impressive cer- emonies of the Society being observed. While the simplicity and sincerity of the lives of the Friends remain the same, the tendency is to the approach of the more ordinary styles of life, the marriage of the older So- ciety being now seldom seen. It is to the lives, as examples of sincere and earnest living, of such men as Willis Cammack that the younger generation should be constantly referred, no more valuable lessons being pos- sible to convey than are found in a careful study of the character of this substantial and honored citizen.
DEAN A. BALDWIN.
Dean A. Baldwin, of Marion, Indiana, who represents a well known reliable Fire Insurance Company and is its special agent and adjustor for Indiana, and Michigan and
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Cincinnati, in Ohio, is a product of Grant county, Indiana, having been born on Deer Creek hill, three miles south of this city, February 7, 1864, and he is a son of Asa T. Baldwin, who is represented else- where in these pages. The days of his boy- hood were spent on his father's fruit farm and in attendance at the public schools partly in country and partly in Marion public schools where he received his primary edu- cation. Later he took a course near Marion at what was called "Mississinewa Graded Schools" and at the age of twenty-one en- tered the employ of Overman Brothers, re- tail grocers, as driver of their delivery wagon. Two years later he was promoted to the position of head clerk in their store and soon won the good will of their custom- ers by his application and obliging ways. The close confinement of indoor work proved too much for his health and at the end of five years from the time he commenced with this firm he was compelled to seek a change of climate. About one year was spent in Michigan when he returned and worked with his uncle, Stephen G. Baldwin, soliciting fire insurance for a short time and proving un- successful.
Not wishing to again try his health by inside work, he became collector for several business houses of Marion and also continued to solicit fire insurance among his friends to whom he had formerly sold groceries. This time he was more fortunate in the insurance work and at the end of six weeks had made sufficient success of fire insurance soliciting to warrant him in dropping the collections and applying his entire time to the fire insur- ance business. Accordingly he hired to his uncle and for six years divided his time be- tween soliciting and office work, the business
more than doubling in that period. In Feb- ruary, 1896, in response to his application, he was appointed special agent and adjustor for Kentucky and Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio, by the Merchants' Insurance Company of Newark, New Jersey. In March, 1899 at the suggestion of Mr. Baldwin, Kentucky was dropped from his field and he was con- tinued as special agent and adjustor for this state and Cincinnati.
On January 1, 1901, the Merchants' In- surance Company placed Michigan under his charge, and he now acts as special agent as above mentioned. His work has been in the highest degree satisfactory and meritorious, the company raising his sala- ry four times since he has been asso- ciated with them and otherwise show- ing their appreciation of his efforts in their behalf. He has always made his home in Marion, Indiana, where he has many friends. He was reared in the Quaker faith and is a member of that church at Marion, Indiana. On Nov. 16, 1893, he led to the altar of marriage Miss Cora R. Ortner, of Sandusky, Ohio, a most estimable lady, the ceremony being performed at her parents home in Sandusky, Ohio.
ASA T. BALDWIN.
Asa T. Baldwin represents one of the oldest families of Grant county, Indiana, and was himself born in the county on the site of the present thriving village of Fairmount, March 16, 1835, and a son of Thomas and Lydia Baldwin. The Ballwin family were among the earliest of the Friends who set- tled in Wayne county, Indiana, Daniel was
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the grandfather of Asa, and who married Christian Willcuts, having lived for some time near the present site of Earlham Col- lege at Richmond. There Thomas, the fa- ther of Asa, was born April 26, 1813, but was reared mainly at Fountain City, near the old New Garden meeting house, the central point of the Quaker influence that later did so much for the accomplishment of the severance of the bonds of human slavery.
In 1833 when the demands of a growing family were becoming important, Daniel Baldwin removed to Grant county, enter- ing land upon which part of the village of Fairmount now stands. He was a man of strong personality, and was an important factor in the early days of the community, dying at the earliest recollection of Asa. Christian Willcuts was a native of the Pine Tree state, and whose family was one of the most important in its community. Lydia Thomas, who was born at Fountain City on Christmas day, 1814, and was the daughter of Stephen Thomas, who also came from North Carolina in the early days of the pres- ent century to the wilds of Wayne county. His wife was Hannah Mendenhall. They both died at Fountain City and their bodies repose in the Friends cemetery at New Gar- den. The marriage of Thomas and Lydia under the old forms of the Society, occurred in that old house held sacred by many Friends in the state, in 1833; removing soon after to Grant county, the remainder of the family following immediately. This worthy couple lived together for almost sixty-six years, and finally passed away in May, 1899. within four days of each other, to that land "beyond the waveless sea." They were thought to be the oldest couple born in the
state. They sleep in one grave in the Odd Fellows' cemetery, the dawn of the resurrec- tion morn to find them in death, as in life, not divided.
Thomas Baldwin was one of the few who formed the first anti-slavery society, holding some meetings in the old Mississinewa meet- ing house, when the more conservative re- fused the further use of the house, and the gatherings were transferred to Deer Creek, which ever after became known as an anti- slavery stronghold. His own house became a station on the underground railroad, and the night was never too dark or the danger too great for him to attend the wants of the distressed and hunted slaves who by the as- sistance of such friends as he, finally found that freedom denied them in the country that had equal rights and personal liberty as the foundation stone of its existence.
Others of the Baldwin family to reside in Grant county were Elias, Joseph, David, Jonathan and Micah, all of whom became highly respected citizen of this section of the state. Of the daughters, Millie was married to Barnabas Bogue and died at her home in Bogue's 'Hill in West Marion; Mary be- came the wife of Dr. Philip Paterson and lived and died at Fairmount ; Huldah is the only surivor in 1900, and lives in Illinois, being about seventy years of age ; Rachel was the wife of James R. Smith and died at Fair- mount. Eight children were born to Thomas and Lydia Baldwin, seven of whom attained maturity and among whom not a death oc- curred for forty-five years, the first being that of Mary W. Moore in 1897, the wife of Dr. Charles V. Moore of Fairmount, being preceded to the other shore by her husband by but two weeks. She was soon followed by her brother Addison M. Baldwin, who
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had been a man of considerable importance in the county, having served as the recorder for two terms, and having had an honorable and creditable career as a valiant soldier dur- ing the great civil strife. Of Terah Baldwin fuller mention will be found elsewhere in this volume : Stephen G. is the widely known insurance man of Marion : Ann is the wife of John Fellow of Tipton county, and Lucetta B. is Mrs. Dr. Ed Stanley, of Los Angeles, California ..
.Asa T. Baldwin passed most of his boy- hood near Marion, and soon after reaching his majority spent several months on the St. Joseph river in Michigan. Having the training afforded in the schools of Richmond he began to teach in Grant county when still quite young and for twenty years made that his principal occupation. He taught the first two winter schools of whites and Indians at the opening of White's Manual Labor Insti- tute in Wabash county, Indiana. For the past thirty-one years he has resided in Ma- rion, where he has devoted the greater part of his attention to the cultivation of small fruits, having about thirty acres devoted to gardening and fruit-growing. He formerly owned sixty acres, of which about one-half has been platted and added to the city, being known as the Forbes addition.
The marriage of Asa T. Baldwin oc- curred at the age of twenty-four to Miss Em- ily Kelly, daughter of Timothy and Avis Kelly, with whom he lived for twenty-five years, her death being at the age of forty- eight. She was the mother of six children, three of whom are still living. They are Otto K. Ballwin, a prosperous farmer of Wheeling. Indiana: Dean .\. Baldwin, the popular insurance adustor, whose biography appears on another page, and Clara B., who | ily were Allen, who bears to-day a some-
became the wife of Willard A. Evans of In- dianapolis. Clara was educated in Earlham College, graduating in the class of 1893, and has already obtained considerable distinction as an easy and fluent contributor to the press of the state. Her husband is a skilled elec- trician and is engaged in the manufacture of electrical machinery.
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