USA > Indiana > Greene County > Biographical memoirs of Greene County, Ind. : with reminiscences of pioneer days, Volume III > Part 20
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Among the representative farmers of Greene county is the subject of this review, who is the owner of eighty- five acres of good land and is carrying on the various de- partments of his enterprise with that discretion and en- ergy which always insure success. Mr. Taylor was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, February 21, 1838, the son of Richard Oglesby Taylor. Grandfather Taylor came to America from England and settled in Virginia, where he farmed until the War of 1812, when he enlisted and was killed in battle. He was of a family of four boys and three girls, one brother having come to America.
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Richard Taylor, father of the subject, was born in Appo- mattox county, Virginia. Having been bound out to an uncle in early life he never attended school a day. Re- maining on his uncle's farm and working with the slaves until he was nineteen years old, he ran away and went to Kentucky, where he learned the miller's trade, in time becoming an expert miller, having no superior in the Ohio valley, working in one mill for thirty-two years. He came to Greene county, Indiana, in 1859, buying a farm of two hundred and eighty acres, all timbered, which he cleared, improved and made a farm on which he lived during the remaining days of his life, having died there July 28, 1885, at the age of seventy-four years. He married Louise Williams, who was a Dunkard in religious faith. He was a Free Mason and a member of the Christian church. Eight children were born to them, five of whom are living in 1908.
John S. Taylor, our subject, attended subscription . schools in Kentucky until he was sixteen years old and was raised to work in the flouring mills, having begun when he left school and worked continuously in various mills until he was twenty-four, when he left his work and offered his services in defense of the Union, having enlist- ed in Company H. Sixteenth Kentucky Infantry, in 1861. serving seventeen months as a soldier in his native state. At the time President Lincoln issued his amnesty proc- lamation five hundred members of this regiment, includ- ing the subject, laid down their arms and never returned to service. After this the subject worked at various kinds of employment in western states and in Arkansas, then he returned to Greene county. Indiana, and settled on a farm. a part of his father's old place. in Wright town-
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ship, where he has since resided, the farm consisting of eighty-six acres, all but six being under the plow.
Mr. Taylor was married December 26, 1867, to Sarah E. Reel, daughter of Moses and Lucinda ( Gilmore) Reel, the former of North Carolina and the latter of Vir- ginia, the father having been five years old when he was brought to Indiana, his parents settling in Knox county, where he farmed and operated a saw-mill when he reached manhood. He was a soldier in the Black Hawk war. George Reel, uncle of the subject, was a soldier in the War of 1812. The Taylor family has always adhered to the Presbyterian faith. Six children have been born to the subject and wife as follows: Moses W., born Au- gust 18, 1869. is single: Elmer, born April 18, 1871, who has a wife and eight children, is living on part of . his father's farm; Louise E., who was born September 7, 1872, is the wife of Benjamin Lund and has four chil- dren ; Harriett, who was born July 17, 1875; is the widow of Charles A. Bledsoe, and the mother of four boys ; James Franklin, who was born April 29, 1877, is married and living in Bloomington, attending the State Uni- versity : Cooper, who was born March 6, 1879, is married and living at Jasonville.
Mr. Taylor is a Missionary Baptist and his wife is a Presbyterian. He is an independent voter, and always casts his ballot for the best man, being public-spirited and desirous of witnessing the triumph of the right in political and all other questions. He takes an active part in church work, having been superintendent of the Sunday school at his home church for seventeen years. He was super- intendent of the first Sunday school in Wright township, which continued for one year.
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HIRAM TURVEY.
In an analysis of the character of this well-known citizen of Linton we find the qualities of upright man- hood-loyalty in citizenship, reliability in business and conscientiousness in the discharge of the duties of private and public life-and these are so combined as to make his a strong personality, commanding respect and confidence. Mr. Turvey has been a resident of this city from its in- fancy, having come here when only a few houses stood on the site of a now bustling population of over ten thou- sand people, and which in a few decades promises to be- come one of the most important cities of the state. The subject has been identified with its growth, which has been phenomenal, having from the first had that innate foresight to see the future possibilities of the place, and having confined his energies to this locality, it has bene- fited him and he has undoubtedly been of great benefit to its upbuilding. It is with more than ordinary interest that we read of this man, who, with only fifty cents in his pocket. and no other worldly wealth, came to this town, and, after two decades of endeavor, has become one of the most prominent and successful business men there, being at present an extensive property owner and the dominating spirit in several large enterprises.
Mr. Turvey was born in Wood county, West Vir- ginia, February 21, 1849. the son of George and Adeline (Leashure) Turvey. The former and his brother, Mor- dica, and one brother of the subject were all members of Company E. Eleventh West Virginia Volunteers, and served throughout the war as defenders of the Union.
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The father of the subject died in Jackson county, Ohio. where he settled after the war, as a result of a wound re- ceived in the battle of New Creek, West Virginia, while serving under General Phil Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley campaign. The mother of the subject also passed away in Jackson county, Ohio. They were the parents of three sons and four daughters, five of whom are now liv- ing. They are Harrison A., living on a farm in Jackson . county, Ohio; Hiram, our subject. ; Emily F., deceased, who was Mrs. Barnard and lived in Jackson county, Ohio ; Martha J., now Mrs. Crighton, of Plain City, Ohio; Perry, a farmer near Springfield, Ohio; Anna E., now Mrs. Staggs, of Columbus, Ohio; Mary Alice Davis, (leceased, late of Madison Mills, Ohio.
Hiram Turvey, the subject, was educated in the pay schools of West Virginia up to his sixteenth year, when he accompanied his paternal family to Jackson county, Ohio, where he completed his minority on a farm. Then he came to Linton, Indiana, in 1887 and was engaged in mining, which profession he learned in Ohio. He fol- lowed this work for about twelve years, when he joined a corporation and purchased eight hundred acres of coal lands, operating three mines as the Island Valley Coal Mining Company, of which Mr. Turvey was a director. This company was dissolved in 1904 and the subject be- came identified with the Sugar Valley Coal Company, of West Terre Haute, with which he is now connected as a stockholder and director. He is president of the Linton Ice and Cold Storage Company, of which he was one of the organizers, and which is capitalized at forty thou- sand dollars. Mr. Turvey is the owner of five substan- tial residences, which bring him in a good rental.
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The subject was married in September, 1867, to Har- riett L. Harper, a native of Jackson county, Ohio, daugh- ter of C. N. and Jamia Harper, of Jackson county, Ohio, both deceased. She has proved a faithful helpmeet, and to her encouragement Mr. Turvey owes much of his splen- did achievement. They have no children. Both are mem- bers of the Baptist church. Mr. Turvey has always been a stanch Republican. He was secretary and treasurer of the town of Linton before it was incorporated as a city. He has been a member of the Knights of Pythias for the past nineteen years, and was also a member of the Sons of Veterans in Ohio, but is now not affiliated with the latter organization.
FRANK A. GAGEBY.
This well-known business man of Linton was born at Bloomington, Illinois, March 12, 1865, the son of James and Huldah (Horine) Gageby, natives of Greens- burg, Indiana, and Bloomington, Illinois, respectively. James Gageby was a building contractor, which profes- sion he became well informed in and made a success in every particular, having erected many large buildings in cities and numerous fine residences all over the country. He died at Greensburg, Indiana, in 1886, age fifty-nine years. The subject's mother, who was a woman of fine traits, died at Bloomington, Illinois, in 1868. Three sons were born to them, of whom George is the oldest. He is a farmer at Greensburg, Indiana. Frank A., the
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subject of this sketch, was the second son of James Gage- by, and Wood was the youngest child. He is in the dairy business at Greensburg, Indiana.
The Gageby family moved from Bloomington, Illi- nois, to Greensburg, Indiana, in 1868, the mother of the subject having died prior to this removal. The subject of this sketch lived on a farm at Greensburg until he was twenty years old. He was educated in the public schools there, later taking a four years' course in Alleghany Col- lege, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, graduating from that institution in the spring of 1890 in the scientific and en- gineering department. He took up civil engineering as a private study, and he has since devoted his life prin- cipally to that work. He has been employed in railroad engineering, mine work, city engineering and other simi- lar lines of work.
In the spring of 1908 he was nominated on the Re- publican ticket for the office of county surveyor of Greene county. His nomination was generally regarded as a fortunate one, for he stands high in his profession. He came to Linton in the capacity of engineer of the Island Coal Company in 1894, and he has been a resident of that town ever since. He was engaged in sewer build ing in Martinsville, Indiana, for one year. He is at present (1908) chief engineer of the sanitary sewer sys- tem now building in Linton.
Mr. Gageby was married in October, 1894, to Dora Hatfield (nee Mrs. Osborn). She is the daughter of Ale Hatfield, a hotel proprietor in Bedford, Indiana. The subject and wife have one living child, Wood, who is twelve years old ( 1908).
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The subject is a member of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks and he has attained the thirty-sec- ond degree in Masonry. Both he and his wife are mem- bers of the Methodist church in Linton.
HENRY GASTINEAU.
This well-known citizen and business man of Linton was born in Stockton township, Greene county. Decem- ber 4. 1870. He is a son of Levi and Rachel ( Hatfield) Gastineau, both natives of this county. The former was a pioneer farmer, having spent all his mature years on a farm. He found farm work a pleasure, and, being in- dustrious, made the work a success. He died at the age of fifty years and his wife at the age of fifty-nine years. They had a family of thirteen children, of whom nine are living. They are Marion, Ann West, James, Martha Rose, Bettie Haseman, Patience, P. E., Grant and Henry. James is a plumber living in Alhambra, California. P. E. is a passenger conductor living in Indianapolis. At pres- ent he is connected with the Indianapolis & Vincennes Railroad Company. Grant is a farmer near Palestine. Illinois.
Henry Gastineau, the subject of this sketch, was reared on the old home place, and farmed until he was twenty-four years old. He was educated in the public schools in Stockton township, near Linton, to which city he moved in 1894. He has been engaged in the mer- cantile and real estate business since that time. He was in
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the general merchandise business for two years, since which time he has devoted his energies to buying, selling and building in all kinds of real estate. He built the Gas- tineau block on West Vincennes street in 1904. It is one of the handsomest blocks in the city, the building cost- ing about twenty-five thousand dollars. He owns a two- story stone-front building on North Main street and two residences. In 1900 he took a six-months' trip to the Pacific coast and California to visit his brother. James, and through the south.
The subject was married in 1897 to Sarah McKeag. a native of Greene county. She lived but two years after her marriage. The subject married his present wife. Net- tie A. Jeffers, in 1902. She was reared near Riley, In- diana. Two daughters have been born to this union, Hen- rietta, born May 17, 1904. and Opal, born June 2, 1907.
Mr. Gastineau is a member of the Woodmen of the World and of the Knights of Pythias and Knights and Ladies of Honor. His political views are always with the Republicans, but he has never held office. He is a member of the Baptist church and his wife belongs to the Methodist church. The Gastineau family are mostly members of the Christian church. They are of French antecedents. The Hatfield family as represented by the mother of the subject were among the pioneers of Greene county, Indiana, having come here from Tennessee.
Mr. Gastineau is regarded as one of Linton's best business men, and he stands high, not only in the busi- ness world, but in all circles of that city, owing to his honorable business methods, his courteous manners and his upright principles.
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WILLIAM FLETCHER CORNELIU'S.
William F. Cornelius, the subject, was born in Lonis- ville. Kentucky, July 30, 1844. He was educated at Cory- den Academy in the common branches and later took a business course in the Louisville Business College. Soon after he left school he enlisted in Company K. Eighty- first Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in 1863, and served until the close of the war, being mostly on detached service, in which capacity he was sent to Greene coun- ty. Indiana. He was deputy postmaster for two years and postmaster for fifteen years following that. He took up a permanent residence in Linton in September. 1869, and has been there continuously up to the present time. He established a grocery and provision store in 1874. operating his commercial business in connection with the postoffice. He was engaged in general macadam- izing for six years. His place of business was burned out in 1885, causing a loss of seven thousand dollars. Since then he has been engaged in the real estate and in- surance business. He had begun this business before his misfortune and has been thirty-four years in all in this work. He has a good list of old-line insurance companies :
The subject was married April 8, 1874, to Alice V. Osborn, daughter of David L. and Annie E. (Buck) Os- born. The subject and wife had the following children : Maudie, who died when eighteen months old: Myrtle, wife of William Smitherman, an electrician, in Chicago; Ann, wife of John T. Bennett, an engineer, located in Shelburn, Indiana ; David W. is a young man of excep- tionally high literary attainments, who graduated in the
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Linton high school before he was sixteen years old and from De Pauw University before he was twenty-one. He then became assistant instructor in physics and civil engineering at Purdue University and is now in the Uni- versity of California.
The subject is the son of William H. and Sarah A. (Robbins) Cornelius, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter a native of Massachusetts. They were of Eng- lish and Scotch descent. The Robbins family trace their ancestors to a family of this name who came to America with the Pilgrims in the Mayflower. The subject's moth- er was a teacher. After coming to Ohio she married William H. Cornelius at Georgetown in 1837. The fami- ly lived at Corydon, Indiana, on the route of the Morgan raid during the Civil war, and their house was raided by them. A considerable battle was fought there and ninety- six of Morgan's men were killed. The subject assisted in burying them. William Cornelius was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church who was transferred from the Kentucky to the Indiana conference in 1849. He was born 1817 and died in 1874. His wife was born in 1821 and died in 1865.
The subject is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he takes an active part. He has held numerous offices in the church. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being one of the charter members of the Linton (Indiana) Lodge. His father was a thirty-third degree Mason. He is a Repub- lican and a recognized pension attorney. He owns two hundred and forty acres of farming land in Grant town- ship, Greene county, Both he and his wife are stockhold-
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ers in the First National Bank in Linton. He has always been successful in his business ventures and is highly re- spected in the town where he now lives.
LEALDAS S. FORBES.
Lealdas S. Forbes holds in a most creditable man- ner the responsible position of bookkeeper and paymaster for the Summit Coal and Mining Company, with offices in Linton. He was born at Moores Hill, Dearborn county. Indiana, January 15, 1858, the son the the Rev. Lealdas Forbes, who was a pioneer minister of considerable note in the Methodist church in Indiana, his first work in this state including twenty-seven appointments, among which was Bloomfield, Spencer and Worthington. He was a self-educated man, working his way through college later in life. He became principal of the Ladies' Seminary at Bloomfield, under the jurisdiction of the Methodist con- ference of Indiana. the old buildings being subsequently used for the village high school. He also owned a farm near Mineral City, where most of his family were reared. He was engaged in active work in the Indiana conference for fifty-four years, during which time he became one of the most noted ministers in the state. He was three times married and had two children by each marriage, a son and a daughter. The subject of this sketch is the youngest living child, the other survivors being Mrs. Louisa Farro, of Tracey, Minnesota ; Mrs. Libbie A. Fel- lows, of Los Angeles, California, one from each union.
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The subject's father died at Le Roy, Illingis. May 23. 1896, and his last wife died in Bloomfield in 1902. The latter's maiden name was Rachael Fisher, whose record harks back to Revolutionary stock, her grandfather, Ma- thias Fisher, being one of the patriots captured by the Indians at the mouth of Laughrie creek and sold to the French and held prisoners on the Island of Montreal until they effected their escape. The Fisher family were all liberally educated and were teachers. They were of Scotch ancestry.
Lealdas Forbes, our subject, was educated in the pub- lic schools, at the State University and De Pauw Uni- versity, in each of which he made splendid records for scholarship, graduating from the last named in the law department in 1885. after which he practiced law at Bloomfield for three years with marked success, being deputy prosecuting attorney for two years. Then he went to Marshall, Minnesota, where he practiced for two years. when his father's health failed, causing our subject to re- turn home and take charge of the farm, which he suc- cessfully managed until 1896. He was in the employ of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company for two years. He was deputy county auditor from 1898 to 1902. since which time he has occupied his present position, hav- ing moved from Bloomfield to Linton in May, 1903. In all this work he showed a marked executive ability.
Mr. Forbes married August 14. 1885. Ella Lowder, the accomplished daughter of Dr. and Mrs. H. R. Low- der. of Bloomfield. Mr. and Mrs. Forbes have five liv- ing children and one deceased. They are Elsie, Julia. May. Herbert. Rowena and Mildred, all living at home.
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The first two named are graduates of the Linton high school and Elsie is a student (1908) in the State Uni- versity. Lealda died at the age of one year. Herbert L. is in his junior year at the high school.
Fraternally Mr. Forbes is a charter member of the Acolade Lodge, No. 63, Knights of Pythias, at Bloom- field, where he still holds his membership. He is also a member of the Uniform Rank, No. 93, of Linton, and is a charter member of the Benevolent and Protective Or- der of Elks, Lodge No. 866, at Linton. He belongs to the Woodmen of the World. He has been chancellor commander and representative to the grand lodge of the Knights of Pythias, being a member of the encampment rank. Mr. Forbes, wife and eldest daughter are members of the Methodist church. Politically the subject has al- ways been a Republican, following in the footsteps of his father, who was one of the organizers of that party, and who supported John C. Fremont for the presidency in 1856.
Mr. Forbes is generally popular wherever he goes. and is held in high esteem by every one who knows him, both in business and private life.
CLINTON DUDLEY HIXSON.
The two most strongly marked characteristics of both the east and the west are combined in the residents of the section of the country of which this volume treats. The enthusiastic enterprise which overleaps all obstacles
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and makes possible almost any undertaking in the com- paratively new and vigorous western states is here, tem- pered by the stable and more conservative policy that we have borrowed from our eastern neighbors, and the com- bination is one of peculiar and unusual force and power. This happy combination of characteristics is possessed by the subject of this review.
Clinton Dudley Hixon was born in the Buckeye state, January 25, 1856, the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Myers) Hixson, the former also an Ohioan by birth. claiming Fayette county as the spot of his nativity, which is one of the richest and best counties of the state, and. useless to say, Benjamin Hixson was a prosperous farmer in that favored section. However, being allured by the greater inducements of Greene county, Indiana. he moved from his native heath to the site of the present thriving city of Linton when it was but a dot on the map. Here he purchased a large farm which is now a leading portion of the residence section of the city-East A street. The subject of this sketch still lives on a lot of the original farm, now peopled with fashionable resi- dences. Benjamin Hixson lived on the old homestead until his death in March, 1869, at the early age of forty- three years. The mother of "Dudley," as he is familiarly called by his friends, was of German parentage, and she passed away in 1905, at the age of seventy-nine years, after a consecrated Christian life. Four sons were born to Benjamin and Elizabeth Hixson, namely: John and William, deceased ; Lucian, a resident of Linton, and Clin- ton Dudley, our subject.
Mr. Hixson, who was reared on a farm, naturally
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took to agricultural pursuits and farmed successfully all his life up to 1907, since which time he has been asso- viated with his sons in the hardware business in Linton, in which he has been successful, a substantial trade hav- ing been built up with the city and surrounding country by his sons several years previous.
The subject was united in the bonds of matrimony to Amanda Craig in April, 1883. She is the daugliter of Thomas Craig, at that time a well-known citizen of Greene county. Two children have been born to this union : Lee, age twenty-two, in 1908, who married Jo- sephine Jewel, of Worthington, is father of one child and lives in Linton ; Otto, the second son of the subject, is eighteen years old and has resided in Linton for some time. Both boys are very promising business people, hav- ing shown from the first that they possessed the necessary prerequisites to succeed in the world of strenuous en- deavor and keen competition.
The subject delights to tell of the days when his father lived on the farm consisting of two hundred and seven acres, when the surrounding country in the vicinity of Linton was covered with dense woods. That was when the vast underlying coal deposits were unknown. The roads were so bad in those days that Mr. Hixson kept two oxen yoked all the time for the purpose of pull- ing teams out of the mud on A street.
Our subject is highly honored in the congregation of the Methodist Episcopal church, being a trustee of the same, performing these duties methodically as he does his private business affairs. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and is regarded as a stalwart Democrat and is
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proud of it, for he is the only Hixson of his family name that is a supporter of this party. No citizen of Linton or the community where he resided before moving to the city stands in higher regard and popular approval than the subject of this sketch.
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