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 99

Author:
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago: Bowen
Number of Pages: 1000

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 99

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On his fiftieth birthday Mr. Baldwin was united to Mrs. Mary E. Overman, relict of Anderson C. Overman. She is a daughter of Isaac and Rhoda Jay, and a sister of Abi- jah C. Jay of Marion.

Isaac Jay and Rhoda Cooper were mar- ried in Friends meeting, six miles north of Dayton, Montgomery county, Ohio. Both were native to Ohio soil, his birth being in Miami county, and he was a son of Walter D. and Mary ( Macy) Jay. In the fall of 1850 the Jay family, consisting of four sons and a daughter. settled near Marion, on the farm that is now comprised in the Odd Fel- lows cemetery and which joins the old Mis- sissinewa Friends burying ground. There the lives of the parents were passed. he dying at the age of seventy, and she surviving till attaining her eighty-second year, with all faculties unimpaired to the end.

Isaac Jay was one of that class of min- isters of the Society of Friends whose lives were an inspiration to the weak and a ben- ediction to the strong. He was given great latitude in his ministrations, being free to go where his own judgment decided. visit- ing, during the course of a busy life, pretty nearly every place in the country where the Friends Societies were found. His services were not for hire, but for the love of God, and with the hope that some good would be the result of his ministrations. His fam-

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what similar relation to the Society as that of his father in the past, being one of the most widely and highly respected of the So- ciety's ministers. He resides at Richmond. Doctor Milton Jay of Chicago has attained a well merited position in the medical pro- fession ; Walter D., deceased, was a substan- tial farmer of Grant county. Abijah C. and Mary are already noted.

Anderson C. Overman, to whom Mary Jay was married when quite young, was a practical surveyor, being for some years in the employ of the railroad as well as in lay- ing out many of the public ditches for the county, and held for two terms the office of county surveyor. Receiving part of his fa- ther's estate he built a pleasant residence in 1878. His death came on the 26th of March, 1880, after a rather protracted period of ill- ness. Three children were born to them, Isaac, deceased at the age of twelve ; Alham- bra and Rhoda have been given the benefit of Earlham College. The old residence being destroyed, the present convenient and desira- ble one was built in 1896, and here the most generous hospitality is extended to the nu- merous friends ; no more popular home or highly respected people being found in Ma- rion.

Mrs. Baldwin has to some extent fol- lowed in the footsteps of her revered father and distinguished brother, consecrating her own life to the demands of the Master, and since twenty-eight years of age has been in the active work of ministering to the relief of distressed and wounded spirits. Much good has come from her labors and her worth is recognized in the Society by her being constantly assigned to positions that require the exercise of maturity of judgment and determination of purpose. She usually

has some Society to attend and is constant- ly sought to minister beyond the reach of her ability. She is generally in attendance upon the yearly meetings and has often served upon the visiting committee to White's Institute, to the conduct of which much of her effort is directed.

Mr. Baldwin is also entitled to no little consideration and credit for the work he has done for and in the Society. Besides being active in the general work of the So- ciety, he has devoted much thought and effort to the training of the young. His services in the monthly, quarterly and yearly meetings have been of an important nature as he has often made the reports and acted as chairman and secretary of various commit- tees. For a number of years Mr. Baldwin served as one of the overseers of First Friends church of Marion, and for seven years was clerk of the quarterly meeting held at that place. He has taken an active part especially in Sabbath-school work and the subject of peace and arbitration. For a quarter of a century he taught a Sabbath- school class, and is now and has been for many years chairman of the central commit- tee on peace of the yearly meeting held at Richmond, Indiana. Like other members of his church he does not believe in prize fights, duels, capital punishment, mob-vio- lence or national warfare. He fully believes that all should use their influence to hasten the time when all difficulties will be settled by peaceable methods.

HENRY CLAY CREVISTON.

The traveler, who passes from the vil- lage of Van Buren to Warren, Indiana, goes through a desirable agricultural section of

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the country, the large farms being well im- proved with handsome residences and barns, all speaking in emphatic terms of the in- dustry and intelligence displayed in their conduct. When some four miles northeast of the town of Van Buren, and near the ex- treme corner of Grant county, attention is specially drawn to the attractive home of Henry Clay Creviston, where every feature bespeaks the supervision of a well-trained mind, coupled with energy, ambition and thrift.

The farm of one hundred and eighty acres is a delightfully situated tract, lying along the course of Black creek, and con- sists of valuable pasture as well as tillable land, which has been kept in a high state of fertility by the systematic manner in which it has been operated. The tract is one of the earliest to be cleared in the township, having been entered by Solomon Fry, who sold to Enoch E. Camblin, one of the oldest resi- dents of the community still living. Mr. Creviston has added materially to the value of the farm by the extensive system of tile drainage, he now having in excess of four thousand rods of tile laid beneath the sur- face. A commodious barn, with suitable outbuildings adapted to the uses of the farm, have been erected at a great expense, the en- tire effort at improvement being crowned by the beautiful residence which, standing as it does upon an eminence that commands a delightful view of the surrounding country, magnifies the general excellence of the place, exciting the warmest commendations of those, who can appreciate the skill, energy and intelligence displayed in the making of such a property. The farm is devoted al- most wholly to the breeding and develop- ment of thoroughbred stock, it being the

home of the "Warren Herd of Poland China Hogs," as well as the headquarters for Cots- wold Sheep and Shorthorn Cattle. The annual sales of the stock from this widely known establishment, held at Warren, Indi- ana, have brought hundreds of stock men to this section, and have made the name of Henry C. Creviston almost a household word in dozens of homes throughout the country, the products of his herds being found on numerous stock farms and ranches over a widely separated territory. The many exhibitions, where his stock has competed with the best produced by other breeders of other states, has redounded to the exten- sion of his fame as a careful and systematic developer of thoroughbred animals. For fif- teen years he has been identified with the im- provement of the stock of the state, believing much of the prosperity of the average farmer lay in his being supplied with that class of stock that would give the greatest returns for the efforts bestowed upon them. Ex- perience and close observation has left no doubt in his mind as to the superiority of the well-bred animals, the result being that his attention and skill were turned in the direction of the breeding and development of this class of stock. That he has suc- ceeded is amply proven by the reputation ac- corded him by his compeers, who recognize him as one of those who have won well merited name and competence from the de- votion to the industry. Believing in the Darwinian doctrines of the development of all animal life, there has come great satis- faction to him in the thought that his efforts have done something toward the furthering of the great principles that underlie the uni- verse. He is a member of the Swine Breed- ers, the Shorthorn and Wool Growers' Asso-

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ciations, in the councils of all of which his advice and experience carry due weight, there being few who have wider or more satisfactory results from the years spent in this interesting line of effort. No profes- sion can present to the thoughtful mind of him, who is in touch with the sublime truths of a wise Creator, ideas more in accord with the great heart of Nature; for, here, what- ever effort is made, the result but emphasizes the conception of God, ample reward being found in the advancement that comes through one's own knowledge and adher- ence to the recognized laws of inexorable de- cree.

Besides the specialties mentioned, Mr. Crevison does quite an extensive business ir general farming and stock feeding, gen- erally turning on the market car-load lots of various stock. The attention he has given to the cultivation of fruit has resulted in the growth of a three-acre orchard the product from which will compare favorably with that from any similar sized tract in other states, thus demonstrating to the satisfac- tion of any one interested, the feasibility of the commercial development of this region more fully and systematically along the line of horticulture.

The section in which this farm is located is included in the great Indiana oil field, the development on the Creviston farm being thirteen wells in active operation, the royalty from them contributing materially to the total income of the proprietor. Some of the first efforts at oil investigation for this field were made on this farm, Mr. Creviston hav- ing for several years great credence in the belief of the existence of the product in paying quantities. The gentleman whom we are considering was born in the county,

and in fact, in the township, where he has resided all his life, the date of birth being August 13, 1857. The family of which he is a representative is one of the oldest of the community, a full review of its rela- tion to the county being found in connection with another member of the family in this volume. His boyhood being all passed at home, he received the advantages afforded by the local schools ; and, at the age of nineteen, began to teach, the field of his operation for the succeedling four years being in the home district, the success he attained as an instruc- tor and disciplinarian insuring him a per- manency in school work so long as he might have inclination in that direction.

Just after passing the twenty-third year, on the 15th of September, 1880, he was united in marriage to Miss Josie Lobdell, the accomplished and amiable daughter of the widely known citizen of Washington township, Aaron Lobdell, whose memoirs are also found on another page of this work. This lady was generally accorded the first place, as a genial and fascinating compan- ion, among the many clever young ladies of the neighborhood where she was reared, her subsequent life but emphasizing the cor- rectness of this acclamation. The union has resulted in the generation of six chil- dren, the eldest being Pearlie Ann, who, after graduating in the common schools, at- tended the Marion Normal school, where she made decided progress in all her efforts, Laura G., Russell G., Jessie F., Walter W. and Emma J. constitutes the remainder of an interesting family, in whose companionship Mr. Creviston finds the greatest satisfaction attending the relations of domestic life.

While Mr. Creviston is almost wholly I occupied with the demands of the home and

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farm, he has become associated with both the Modern Woodmen and the Knights of the Maccabees.

LEWIS LANDESS.

Of the many men who have largely con- tributed to the making of Grant county, none has deserved more commendation than Lewis Landess. He was born near Danville, Highland county, Ohio, October 17, 1825, a son of John and Sarah (Roush) Landess, who were of Kentucky and Virginia birth respectively, and who were married in Ohio, both having been brought there by their parents in childhood. John was the son of Jacob Landess, who was from the state of North Carolina, married a Welsh lady, and settled at an early day in Kentucky. The two families located in the woods of High- land county, Ohio, where they were identi- fied with the early history of that region, be- coming widely known and influential citi- zens. Mrs. Sarah Landess died when Lewis was but a child leaving two other children, the lady who became their step-mother being Susan Shaffer.

John Landess passed nearly all his life in Ohio, but died while on a visit to his chil- dren in this state, at the age of fifty-four. He was the father of sixteen children, of whom John resides in Iowa. Levi is in Ohio and Lewis is the third of the sons living of the first family. There being several children at home, when Lewis reached the age of sixteen, he concluded his services were no longer needed, and he accordingly started for Indiana, where two uncles then lived. His father had given his consent,

and with his little belongings tied in a hand- kerchief, he made the trip, finally reaching his uncles-Michael and Philip Roush-the former of whom resided in Van Buren town- ship. The trip was made in company with a family named Gardner who came to this vicinity, and with whom Lewis continued to live for four years, the home being one and one-half miles north of Van Buren village. He assisted Gardner in clearing out a new farm, as well as doing similar work for others, securing work of other kinds when- ever the opportunity presented. He assisted in building the first bridge over the Wabash between Warren and Huntington. He was thus employed for the greater part of seven years, making his home at the Mr. Gardner's with whom he had come to the state.

During this time he had managed to se- cure a forty-acre tract of wild land lying one mile west of the present village, and after his marriage devoted the next four years to the improvement of the same.

Lewis Landess was married on the 18th of March, 1848, to Miss Phebe C. Whin- nery. daughter of Joseph and Lydia Whin- nery, who were pioneers of the Black creek settlement, having migrated from Clinton county, Ohio, in 1837, where Phebe C. was a child of ten years. In the four years on this first tract he cleared nearly all the land. erected a good hewed-log house and got a pretty good farm started. He then secured an eighty-acre tract two miles northeast ot the village. having forty-five acres already cleared, and for the next fifteen years his attention was devoted almost wholly to the clearing and improvement of this place. He increased the acreage till it contained two hundred and seventy-seven acres, most of which he had in cultivation and which be-

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came one of the best farms of the township. This farm was located along the two Black creeks and was well drained, and with the excellent class of buildings he had erected it became a most desirable and valuable farm. In 1896 he sold this farm, receiving four- teen thousand, three hundred and sixty-five dollars for it, the price being much higher than had then been paid for any other farm in the township, but even at that price it proved a fine investment for the purchaser, the oil produced from it returning the pur- chase price several times over.

Some years since Mr. Landess left the farm, removing to the village, where he has a very desirable body of land, from which several village lots and building sites have already been surveyed. He has made it something of a feature in the latter years to handle oil territory, having made several important deals in that line, though he has not become what is known as an oil operator in the sense of developing territory on his own account. His interest, however, in this movement has resulted in bringing other ex- perienced men into the field to develop, the result being to the great benefit of the entire community, no one thing having been so im- portant in the making of this region as the oil development, there now being hundreds of producing wells in the field, the returns being of incalculable benefit to the owners as well as to the operators and to others who are employed in the work.

Mr. Landess has ever evinced an interest in all intended improvements tending to the betterment of the community, such as rail- roads, pikes or drainage. In the securing ot the Clover Leaf Railroad he had taken an active part in th township's bonding to the amount of eight thousand, eight hundred and

fifty dollars, and paid his share most will- ingly. But the promoters had shown such a spirit of wanting more that he discouraged tlreir efforts to secure a guarantee of twenty- five thousand dollars by getting signatures representing that the commissioners would pay and that the signatures did not mean that each man was holding for the amount. This, however, soon became apparant was a fraud, as suits were brought and many of those men were compelled to pay the amounts desig- nated, the cost to some of them exceeding one thousand dollars.

Having made a marked success of every business matter in which he has become in- terested, he is now one of the most pros- perous and influential men of the township, and there is nothing touching the advance- ment of the community in which he does not take a keen interest, his advice and coun- sel carrying great weight among all his neighbors. Conservative and careful, he has not been inclined to take hold of question- able or impracticable enterprises, the uni- form success attending all his ventures giving him the reputation of solidlity and evenness in all matters, whether it be of business, politics or religion. While he holds to the fundamental princi- ples of the Democracy and is an ardent adherent of the great truths set forth in the declaration of independence and is a stickler for the rights guaranteed by the constitution, he is quite liberal in his actions as to local matters, giving due weight to the selection of the better class of men to manage the affairs of the community regardless of their political faith.

He had the misfortune to lose the companionship of his wife in 1865, after she had become the mother of eight chil-

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dren, of whom seven are still living. Some years later he wedded Mrs. Hannah S. Johnson, the widow of Lewis Johnson, of Washington township, and whose maiden name was West. She had been married in Ohio, and in company with her husband had come soon thereafter to this state. But one child has resulted from this union-a son, Elmer West Landess-a hardware and furniture dealer at the village. The first family consisted of Oscar E., whose per- sonal mention is found elsewhere in this volume ; Alice, wife of Levi Cole, of Marion ; Maria Louisa, wife of Asbury Bradford, of Washington township; William, a farmer; George, an M. D., of Van Buren; Ada, wife of Joseph Coons, now of California; and Serepta, wife of James Bradford, the post- master of Marion.

Mr. Landess is one of the active and en- ergetic members of the Church of the Dis- ciples at Van Buren, and as the years are counted to the credit of Father Time he en- deavors to more nearly conform to the teachings and precepts of the Great Master, realizing that therein lies the road to final happiness in the Hereafter and satisfaction in the land of the living. Possessing the respect and confidence of the people with whom he has lived, it is safe to say that no other man has ever been held in higher es- timation by all, and whose life has been more closely in touch with the mass of the citizens, who, like himself, needed the sympathy and encouragement that only the agreeable com- panionship of such men can give.

Now, standing in the opening of the twentieth century, he may well take pride in reviewing the history of the one just gone, if he finds the impress of his own per- .sonality and effort indelibly impressed upon

its records so that the future investigator may read that Lewis Landess had been not an idler or a listener even, but a doer of the work as well. For upwards of three-quar- ters of the grandest century the world has ever known has he been a factor in the growth and making of this country, more than sixty years of that period being closely connected with Grant county, and certainly he is fully entitled to some satisfaction in the thought that he has been one of the men whose efforts have brought the wilder- ness into a state of fertility and productive- ness little dreamed of by those who first crossed these vast wastes of pond and woods.

As the cares of life are settled and the breath of the invisible wings sometimes is felt may he, with that other grand old man whose life was passed in the wilds close to nature's heart, say-

" But the truer life draws nigher, Every year; And its morning star climbs higher, Every year; Earth's hold on us grows slighter,

· And the heavy burthen lighter, And the dawn immortal brighter, Every year."

REV. ENOS HARVEY.

Rev. Enos Harvey, of the Society of Friends of Fairmount, Grant county, Indi- ana, is a native of Hendricks county, in this state, was born April 3. 1854. and is a son of Mahlon and Zilpha ( Hadley ) Harvey.

Mahlon Harvey was born in the state of Ohio, but was reared to manhood in Mor- gan county. Indiana. Thus far he has spent his entire life in the pursuit of agriculture, and it is more than probable that such will

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be his pursuit until overcome by physical decay or disability. On leaving Morgan Mahlon passed some time in Hendricks county, and in 1855 came to Grant county, Indiana, and settled on a farm three and one-half miles southwest of the village of Fairmount, and now resides on an adjoining farm.

Mrs. Zilpha ( Hadley ) Harvey was a na- tive of Morgan county, Indiana, and passed away from the Liberty township home farm September 24, 1889. To her marriage with Mahlon Harvey there were born nine chil- dren, namely : Sarah Emlen, who died De- cember 19, 1865, at the age of seventeen years and six months; Albert, who died in childhood of scarlet fever; Milton, the next in order of birth, was formerly a farmer, but is now a retired resident of Marion, is married and has reared a family; the Rev. Enos Harvey, whose name opens this bio- graphical notice, is the fourth son born of the family; Eli died in young manhood, leaving a wife and children; John W., who lives on the old home farm near Fairmount, is also married and has a family; Mary, now Mrs. Clayton S. Wright, resides in the "Little Ridge" neighborhood on a portion of the old home farm; Ruth is married to Ansel E. Ratliff, also resides in "Little Ridge" neighborhood, and with her the fa- ther, Mahlon Harvey, makes his home; the youngest of the family of nine children was an infant, deceased.

The Harvey and Hadley families both descended from Irish ancestors, who settled in America prior to the opening of the Rev- olutionary war, and the great-grandfather of Rev. Enos Harvey emigrated from North Carolina to Ohio about the beginning of :the nineteenth century, and he and three

brothers purchased several thousand acres of land in Clinton county that had been awarded by the government to an officer for his services in the war of the Revolu- tion.

Enos Harvey, during his minority, at- tended the district schools of Liberty town- ship, and afterward taught for a number of years in the public schools of Grant coun- ty, spending the spring terms and also the entire year of 1878-9 as a student at Earl- ham College. The summers were spent in the Marion Normal School under Superin+ tendent T. D. Tharp. December 25, 1879, he married Mary M. Wilson, who is a daughter of Lindsey and Jane (Davis) Wilson, natives of North Carolina.

Mrs. Mary M. Harvey was educated in Grant county, Indiana, where she was born, her parents being among the first born in the county, her grandfather Wilson having lo- cated in Fairmount when it was a small village known under the euphonious name of "Pucker." To Mr. and Mrs. Enos Har- vey have been born two children, the eld- est being Ora Ethel, who was born October 10, 1880, was educated in and completed a business course in Fairmount Academy, and is a stenographer and typewriter at Fairmount, Indiana; John Milton, the youngest child, was born October 12, 1882, and is also a student at Fairmount Academy.

Rev. Enos Harvey, in 1891, was ac- knowledged a minister of the gospel in the Friends church. The first year and a half of his ministry was spent as superintendent of evangelistic and pastoral work in Fair- mount quarterly meeting, and as pastor of the church at Jonesboro, after which he spent one year as a student in the Biblical department of Earlham College. In 1893

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he was called to the pastorate of the Friends church at Amboy, Indiana, where he con- ; tinued for three years and until he accepted the call to his present charge at Fairmount. in 1896.

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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 99

Author: Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago: Bowen Number of Pages: 1000

Author:
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago: Bowen
Number of Pages: 1000