USA > Indiana > Greene County > Biographical memoirs of Greene County, Ind. : with reminiscences of pioneer days, Volume II > Part 22
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Et of his own party and no little as-
Chomplinien: te his great recognition of his peculiar Hiness and the eminently satisfactory man-
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the party in making him a
1 fel by the Democrats and Re-
1 aty has never been served by
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E the paties funds Mr. Mitten township trustee. in which office he judgment. wise discretion and business a high poder, and the creditable record made
math to recommend him to the favorable consideration of this party when a cam ifdate was needed for the mire which he was afterwards chose".
Me Mitten has been :dentified with the Commercial State Bank of WVio notin ever since its ganization in :500, anilas vice president of this institution he has con- tributed greatly : est ani popularity am ing the perrons and the public at large. His high standing as an able and judicious business man and his unblemished character in every relation oflife have won for him the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens of Greene land in view of the fact that he has heretofore dis-
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charged worthily his every duty and proved loyal ty every trust reposed in him it is eminently fitting that his numer- ous friends and admirers should predict a future in which he shall be called to larger spheres of endeavor and more signal public honors.
Mr. Mitten is a member of the Masonic Brotherhood. the Odd Fellows Order. Red Men and Woodmen bi America, in the deliberations of which fraternities he is an active participant and in which he has at various times been elevated to positions of honor and trust. To all mat- ters relating to the well-being of fellow men of the ad- vancement of the interests of the community he has con- tributed of his time and influence unsparingly and. being public-spirited in all the term implies. he is naturally looked to as a leader in measures and enterprises for the common good.
On March 31. 1881. Mr. Mitten was happily mar- ried to Martha M. Miller. of Owen county, daughter of David and Catherine Miller, four children resulting from this union. namely: Marion E .. born January 16. 1882. is married and lives in Worthington : James Ralph was born December 22. 1886, and is still under the parenta! roof : Rhoda J. was bom August 24. 1888. and is still a member of the home circle: Floyd M .. a student in the schools of Worthington. was born September 13. ISOS. MIr. and Mrs. Mitten have a pleasant home, which is a favorite rendezvous of the best social circles bf Worth- ington. and their popularity is bounded only by the limits of their acquaintance. They are members of the Meth- odist Episcopal church. as is also the older son and sos- ter. and active in all benevolences and other laudable work under the auspices of the same.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
JOHN CRITES.
The ancestors of the subject were farmers and he has preferred to follow in their steps rather than choos- ing any other line of work, and owing to the fact that he has devoted his life to the study of agriculture he has made farming successful in nearly all its diversified phases. His farm in Highland township contains about three hundred acres.
The subject was born in Wayne county, Ohio, in October, 1845, the son of William and Mary ( Dorrough) Crites. George Crites, grandfather of the subject, was a native of Pennsylvania, who moved to Ohio in the early thirties and bought a farm there, which he worked until he moved to Indiana in 1860 and bought a farm in Greene county, where he made his home up to the time of his death in 1870, when he died in the Union station at Indianapolis from heart failure, grandmother Crites having passed on to the next existence before him. There were eight children in that family who grew to maturity, one of whom, Eli Crites, was a soldier in the Civil war. Grandfather Dorrough died about 1850 in Ohio, where he had come from his native state, Pennsylvania. His widow came to Indiana in 1857, where she lived until her death in the early sixties. They had fourteen chil- dren. William Crites, father of the subject, spent his early life in Ohio, having been brought to that state by his parents when he was but a child. He was de- prived of early educational advantages. He owned a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Ohio, which he conducted until he came to Indiana in May, 1856, having
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traded his Ohio farm for a farm consisting of three hun- dred and sixty acres in Greene county. The farm on which the subject of this sketch now lives, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres, is a part of his father's old farm. About one-half of the original tract has been cleared. All the present buildings on the place have been erected by the subject, except the dwelling house, which is the one in which his father lived. John Crites has never lived more than one and one-fourth miles from that place. His father also spent all his days while in Indiana on that farm, dying there in 1886, at the age of seventy-one. His widow survived until 1895, dying at the age of seventy-five. She was a member of the Church of God.
John Crites, the subject of this sketch, attended three terms of school in Ohio. After he came to Indiana he worked on his father's farm up to 1863. In 1864, shortly after the first of the year, he began his career as a soldier, enlisting in Company A, One Hundred and Forty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He spent most of the time of his enlistment in garrison duty at Nash- ville, Tennessee, and Decatur, Alabama. He was mus- tered out in September, 1865. He was disabled by con- tracting a disease while in the line of duty and he was not able to work for a year after returning home. Then he began work on his father's farm on the "shares." where he continued to work until 1870, when he went to Kansas, where he remained for nearly a year, working as a farm hand. Then he came back to the home farm and conducted that until 1881, when he moved onto a farm which he had previously bought, remaining on this
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until 1893, when he sold it and purchased a part of the old homestead, on which he has since resided. He has added sixty acres to the one hundred and sixty he origi- nally purchased. His farm is now in an excellent condi- tion, being well improved, and it is now producing as much as it did when first cleared, and is underlaid with about two thousand rods of tiling.
Mr. Crites, while he managed the farm, dealt in stock and cattle, handling a good grade. He fed about all the corn that the place produced to hogs. He is now fencing altogether with wire. He has since bought eighty acres, principally of White River bottom land, which is rich, the soil needing no fertilizers, having de- posits of silt spread over it occasionally by high waters.
The subject was married in 1871 to Julia Hodges, a native of Greene county and a daughter of William and Mary J. (Turley) Hodges, natives of North Carolina. Her father was a soldier in the Civil war, having enlisted from Indiana. They had six children who grew to ma- turity, namely: Alma A., wife of Reuben Devilbiss, to whom four children have been born; Alice is the wife of Clarence Chipman. They have four children. Charles E. is the third child of the subject. He is married and has three children. George, the next son, has been twice married. He had one child by his first wife. Sarah, the fifth child, is the wife of John M. Rose. She has one child. Julia, the last child, is single and living at home. Her twin sister died in infancy. The subject's wife died March 4, 1883.
Mr. Crites was married a second time to Mrs. Fran- ces M. Long. December 23, 1883. She had three chil-
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GREENE COUNTY, INDIANA.
dren by a former husband, one of these Byron F. Long. serving in the United States regular army, and remained with the subject for some time. He is now in New Mex- ico, as is also George Crites, who served in the Spanish- American war and later three years in the United States regular army. The subject had no children by his last wife. He never affiliates with any political party, but he and his wife are members of the Baptist church and they are regarded as hospitable and upright people by all who know them.
HENRY THOMPSON JEWELL.
Henry T. Jewell, a well known agriculturist living near Worthington, has spent his life in Greene county, having been born in Highland township, September 18, 1841. His father was William P. Jewell and his moth- er's maiden name was Mariah Miller. Grandfather Jew- ell was a native of Ireland, having been born there in 1776, who came to America when young and settled in Ohio, moving from there to Kentucky and then to Indi- ana in 1836, settling in Highland township, where he worked both as a farmer and a miller, having established the first mill to be run by horsepower in Greene county. It ground both corn and wheat, the latter being bolted by hand power, the bolt having been turned with a crank. The grandfather of the subject continued in the milling business during the remaining years of his life, then one of his sons managed the mill until other mills of a more
49
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
modern type were established in the county. The com- pensation for grinding the corn and bolting it was a part of the corn. His grandfather also owned a farm which is supposed to have been entered from the govern- ment. He died about 1843. Grandmother Miller lived and died in Kentucky. William P. Jewell, the subject's father, got what education he could from the Kentucky public schools. He worked on his father's farm during his boyhood days and later entered one hundred and sixty acres of land in Greene county, Indiana, which he cleared and improved. He lived there the balance of his life and was assisted in improving the place by his sons. He and his wife were members of what was then called the Regular Baptist church. He died March 11, 1890, at the age of seventy-eight years, and she died September 29, 1845, at thirty-six years.
Henry T. Jewell, the subject of this sketch, was edu- cated in the district schools of Greene county, working in the meantime on his father's farm, on which he remained until 1860, when he began working out as a farm hand, which he continued to do for two years, when he enlisted as a private in Company E, Fifty-ninth Indiana Volun- teer Regiment, on August 12, 1862. He was drilled at New Albany, Indiana. The regiment was moved a month later into Mississippi and took part in the battle of Cor- inth, October 3d and 4th of that year. The subject was in the battles around Vicksburg and Port Hudson and Jackson. The colors of this regiment were the first to be hoisted on the state house there. It then engaged in the battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi, after which it was sent to Vicksburg and remained during the remain-
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GREENE COUNTY, INDIANA.
der of the siege until that city surrendered on July 4th. The regiment was next in the battle of Missionary Ridge and was sent to Knoxville with General Thomas' com- mand and wintered at Huntsvile, Alabama. In Febru- ary, 1864, the subject came home with his regiment on veteran furlough, returning to the front in thirty days. The regiment assisted in the Atlanta campaign and . joined Sherman's army there and went with it to the sea. The subject was in the battle of Savannah, after which he went through the Carolinas with the regiment, visit- ing Raleigh, Richmond and Washington, participating in the grand review, and where he was mustered out May 30, 1865.
After the war the subject went to work as a farm hand at one dollar per day, which work he continued for one year. Then he rented a farm, which he worked for twelve years, then bought it and has since lived on the place continuously. It was an improved farm, consisting of fifty-five acres. There are now one hundred and twenty-one acres in the farm, comprising both bottom and upland. He now rents the farm out. but superin- tends it.
The subject was married December 13, 1866, to Laura S. Allen. (A complete history of the Allen fam- ily is to be found under the sketch of John D. Allen in this work.)
Fifteen children were born to this union, namely : Italy, living at Worthington ; Mary R., deceased ; Hugh E., living at Devil's Lake, North Dakota; William, who is married and has one child, lives at Champaign, Illi- nois ; Daisy, living at home; Malcolm H. is married and
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
lives on a farm near Vermillion, Kansas; the seventh child died unnamed; Henry, living at Evansville, Indi- ana; Laura Adella is the wife of Edward Reed and the mother of one child, living on a farm near Jasonville, In- diana : James A., deceased; Newton L. is also deceased ; Sarah J. is the wife of Lee Hixson, of Linton, and the mother of one son; Louisa Edith, wife of Charles Bloom, of Indianapolis; Jessie L. died in childhood; the last child died in infancy.
The subject's wife is a member of the Baptist church. Mr. Jewell is a member of the Grand Army of the Re- public, Post No. 91, at Worthington, Indiana. For many years he has been senior vice commander. He is a Re- publican and has served as township trustee and super -. visor. Mr. Jewell and his family are highly respected people and are regarded as good farmers and good neigh- bors.
JAMES ADAM DECKARD.
It is always pleasant and profitable to contemplate the career of a man who has made a success of life and won the honor and respect of his fellow citizens. Such is the record of the well known gentleman whose name heads this brief article and who is now occupying a high standing among the progressive agriculturists of Grant township. James A. Deckard was born in Sullivan coun- ty, this state, October 24. 1850, the son of John and Ma- hala ( Butcher) Deckard, the former a native of Vir- ginia and the latter of Monroe county, Indiana, where the subject's father came with his parents when a child,
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having been among the early settlers there. John Deck- ard was raised in Monroe county, and after his marriage moved to Sullivan county, where he lived on a well cul- tivated farm until his death. His wife died at the home of the subject. The former was a Presbyterian and the later a Methodist. Mr. Deckard was a Democrat and a member of the Masonic fraternity. They had born to them the following children: James, the subject of this biography; George, who lives in Sullivan county; Ma- tilda also lives in that county; William, a resident of Bloomfield; Kizzie Arbell is deceased; Martha lives in Georgia : John lives in Grant township on a farm; Samp- son, Andy, Jane and Daniel V. are deceased.
James A. Deckard was reared on a farm in Cass township, Sullivan county, and received what education he could in the common schools, remaining at home until he married Elizabeth Walters, a native of his own com- munity. She is the daughter of Sampson and Elizabeth Walters. Sampson Walters was a native of Kentucky and an early settler in Sullivan county. They had the following children: Coatney, deceased; John, who lives in Sullivan county ; Frances, deceased; Elizabeth, wife of the subject ; Mary Ann, living in Sullivan county, and Sampson also resides in Sullivan county.
To the subject and wife the following children were born: Laura, the wife of William Winter, a farmer of Grant township; John, who married Ella Courter, living in Grant township: William Ezra, who lives with the subject ; Clara, the wife of Roy Frakes, who lives in Sullivan county; James G., Elizabeth, Fanny Jane, Charles, Rosa May. all live at home ; four children died in infancy.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Mr. Deckard's life has been one of close application, but it has vielded rich results. He came to the farm in Grant township on which he now lives in 1890. It con- sists of one hundred and forty acres of highly improved land. He also owns sixty acres in another tract. But few farmers in that community seem to understand how to successfully manage a general farm better than the subject, since he always reaps splendid harvests from his fertile fields and is able, year by year, to raise some stock, usually of an excellent quality.
Mr. and Mrs. Deckard are members of the Chris- tian church at Lyons, Indiana. Fraternally the former is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias lodges at Lyons, being a charter member of the latter.
THOMAS ALDERSON.
A farmer and stock raiser, living near Worthington, Indiana, was born in the county of Durham, England. April 1. 1854. His father was George Alderson, who was accidently killed in 1861. His mother, who was Margaret ( Scott) Alderson, died in Clay county, Indiana, in 1904. in her ninty-fifth year. The parents of our subject had eight children. William died just as he was preparing to emigrate to America. He was married and left two children; Eliza- beth married a Scotchman and died in England, leaving seven sons : Charles came to the United States : he lived in different states and died while working in 1903; John
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GREENE COUNTY, INDIANA.
still resides in his native country ; Jane married and re- sides in Shamokin, Pennsylvania; Mary Ann died in England, leaving one child; Sarah married and is liv- ing in England; George was accidently killed in a coal shaft in Parke county, Indiana ; Thomas, our sub- ject, and Ralph reside in Shamokin, Pennsylvania.
Our subject came to the United States in 1879 and settled first in Brazil, Clay county, Indiana, where he worked as a stationary engineer in the coal mines. He was with the Brazil Block Coal Company for twenty-two years. Then he came to Greene county, Indiana, where he bought a small farm, and since 1903 he has been the manager of his brother Charles' farm, which is near his own. Charles is deceased. Thomas spends most of his time managing the affairs of the two farms and rents most of the tillable ground. Having begun working in the mines in his native country when but nine years old. he had but little opportunity to attend school. He also worked at the blacksmith's trade in England for four years ; then he was a fireman for two years, and was an engineer on a railway train for an equal number of years, Later he was a boiler tender for sixteen boilers for two years.
Mr. Alderson married Sadie Triplet in 1897, the daughter of John and Esther (Underwood) Triplet, na- tives of Clay county, Indiana. Bush Triplet, an uncle of Mrs. Alderson, was a soldier in the Civil war, who after receiving an honorable discharge, returned to Indiana, and is now living in Nebraska. Mr. Alderson is a Mason and a Republican. He and his wife are members of the Methodist church, and are highly respected and influential citizens in their community.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
JOSIAH D. MYERS.
A broad-minded man of affairs, whose enterprising spirit and large business experience have contributed much to the material advancement of Worthington and given his name wide publicity throughout the greater part of Indiana, is the well known gentleman of whom the biographer writes in this connection. Josiah D. Myers is a native of Ohio and dates his birth from December 7, of the year 1854, being the second of two children that constituted the family of George and Anna (Delp) Myers, both parents born in Pennsylvania. George Myers was reared in the state of his nativity, where he carried on business for a number of years and in 1866 came to Indi- ana, where he has since lived, being at this time a resident of Worthington. His wife is the daughter of a Pennsyl- vania Quaker who migrated to Ohio in an early day, thence at a later date to Owen county, Indiana, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying a number of years ago, leaving a family of six children, of whom Mrs. Myers was the second in order of birth.
Jacob H. Myers, the older of the two sons of George and Ann Myers, was born in 1852, and is now connected with a manufacturing institution where wagons and car- riages, automobiles and other vehicles are made, operat -- ing quite an extensive establishment in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a married man and the father of three children. Josiah D. Myers, who name furnishes the caption of this article, was about twelve years old when brought by his parents to Indiana, since which time he has been very closely interwoven with the history of Greene county. After devoting his early years to study in the
J. D. Myers
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GREENE COUNTY, INDIANA.
public schools, he took a high-school course and while prosecuting the same, worked at intervals in a printing office. After two years at the printing business he took up the study of telegraphy, in which he soon acquired proficiency and for seven consecutive years this constitut- ed his principal line of work.
Discontinuing telegraphy in April, 1875, Mr. Myers accepted the position of bookkeeper for J. E. Miller, of Worthington, who was engaged in the grain and wool business, in which capacity he continued until the death of his employer, in 1899, when he purchased the estab- lishment, and in due time built up a large and steadily growing business, which he now conducts. To say that the enterprise under his able and judicious management has been more than ordinarily successful is but a conserv- ative statement, as all cognizant of the facts freely admit. Beginning on a modest scale he has steadily extended the scope and volume of the grain business until it now extends throughout four counties and has nine agencies, and the wool business extends nearly over nine counties, requiring twenty-two agencies, the two representing over half a million dollars annually, and in 1902 lacked but very little of one million bushels of grain. In addition to the buying and shipping of grain Mr. Myers deals very extensively in all kinds of field seeds. His career throughout presents a series of successes, such as few achieve and the prominent place in business circles which he has reached is due to sound judgment, wise discretion and rare foresight, together with the strict integrity and high sense of honor which have ever been among his pre- dominant characteristics
In his political relations Mr. Myers is a Republican
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
and as such has rendered valuable service to his party in recognition of which he has been honored at different times with positions of trust, including four years' ser- vice as president of the city council, one term as city clerk, eight years' membership on the school board and councilman at large for the county, which office he still holds. He has long been an Odd Fellow, having joined that fraternity in 1880, and besides filling all the chairs in the local lodge to which he belongs, he has twice been elected a member of the grand lodge. In matters religious he has firm belief and well founded convictions, being identified with the Christian church of Worthington, to which his wife also belonged.
Emma M. Sanders, who became the wife of Mr. My- ers on the 4th day of May, 1875. was born October 12. 1855. in Greene county, the daughter of Addison G. and Louisa ( Needy) Sanders. She bore her husband three children, and after a happy wedded experience of twenty- five years' duration, departed this life July 10, 1900, es- teemed by all who knew her for her beautiful Christian character and many estimable qualities of mind and heart. Louie Edith, the eldest of the children born to this couple, whose date of birth was April 9. 1878. is deceased ; Ma- rien A., born December 3. 1883, is the wife of George C. Ellis, of Louisville, Kentucky: Charles A., whose birth occurred on March 14. 1883, is associated with his father in business.
HON. ROBERT F. WEEMS.
The subject of this sketch belongs to that class of newspaper men whose motto is. "He never fails who
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GREENE COUNTY, INDIANA.
never gives up," and with that bit of old-time homely philosophy constantly before him he has become one of the leading citizens of Greene county.
Mr. Weems was born in Bartholomew county, In- diana, and when a child came to Vincennes with his par- ents, James A. and Martha V. (Prather) Weems, both of whom have long been dead. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm within sight of that his- toric old town, where he attended the common schools. Later he attended Hanover College, at Hanover, Indiana, after which he taught school in Knox county for several years, beginning with a common district school and clos- ing as principal of a town graded school. In March, 1884, Mr. Weems accepted a position on the staff of "The Daily Commercial" in Vincennes, Indiana, and remained with that paper continuously for eighteen years, filling acceptably in succession positions as collector, solicitor, reporter, city editor and editor. His long service and devotion to his labors while in the journalistic field gave him a wide acquaintance. He has been correspondent for several large metropolitan papers, besides doing consid- erable magazine writing.
In the spring of 1902 Mr. Weems resigned his po- sition on "The Daily Commercial" to take up the prac- tice of law, having devoted his spare time to the study of law while doing regular newspaper work, and he was admitted to the bar in Knox county a month after he left his editorial post. He formed a partnership with his brother, James P. L. Weems. Shortly afterward Robert W. Weems was elected secretary of the Knox County Bar Association. Although busy in the exac-
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