USA > Indiana > Blackford County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 12
USA > Indiana > Grant County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 12
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Ezekiel, father of William Ginn, was a married man at the time of the Civil war and he had volunteered his services to put down the Rebellion. In 1863 he enlisted in the Ninth Indiana Cavalry in Henry county, and served until the war was over. Part of the time he was on detailed duty. Not knowing that Ezekiel Ginn had already enlisted, they drafted him, but he had already been gone two weeks and was with them in Nashville, Tennessee. After the war he continued to live on his farm in Henry county until February, 1869, and then moved to Grant county. Two years were spent in Fairmount township, and in the fall of 1870 he moved to Jefferson, where his wife died on October 15, 1875. She was born in Maryland in 1833, and her maiden name was Sally Nicodemus. She was still young when she came to Indiana, and her father died in Henry county, while her mother later moved to Fulton county and died at the age of eighty-seven years. The latter's maiden name was Catherine Eckers, who was born in Bremen, Germany, and her parents emigrated and settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where she lived until they came out to Henry county. After the death of his first wife Ezekiel Ginn married Betsie Aldred, and a year later, in 1878, went to Independence, Kansas, where he died when seventy-eight years of age. His wife passed away some years later.
Mr. William Ginn was one of twins, and he has two brothers and three sisters living, all of whom are now married. He was born on a farm in Henry county, Indiana, December 14, 1856. Part of his boyhood was spent in his native county, but he was only about thirteen years old when his family came to Grant county. Since the age of fifteen he has been practically self-supporting, and has made his own way in the world. In 1877 Mr. Ginn bought his present farm in section fifteen of Jefferson township, and has now a highly productive estate of eighty acres, im- proved with a comfortable, though not pretentious residence, and a place which on the whole represents a good return for his many years of steady and consistent labor and management. In Jefferson township Mr. Ginn married Miss Sarah Jones, who was born in Jefferson town- ship February 3, 1860. Her home has been in this vicinity all her life. Her parents were Joshua and Malinda (Owings) Jones, who came to Grant county in 1840, and lived on a farm in Jefferson township, until their death. The father was from Greene county, Ohio, and the mother
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from Muskingum county, Ohio. They were married in Grant county in February, 1843. Her father was ninety-one years old when he died on August 12, 1909, and his wife passed away some eight years before at the age of eighty-six. Mr. and Mrs. Ginn have the following children : Joshua, born July 13, 1885, is a progressive young farmer, and married Iva Fenton; Frank died in infancy ; James A., born Decem- ber 19, 1891, is a graduate of the high school, and follows the profession of electrician, being unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. Ginn attend the Shiloh Methodist Episcopal church and he and his sons are Republican voters.
PASCAL B. SMITH. Though not among the oldest residents of Grant county, which has been his home since 1890, Mr. Smith has so effectively identified himself with the spirit and activities of the county that he is regarded as one of the most valued citizens. Mr. Smith is a big man, not only in physical proportions, but in character and heart, is big hearted, generous and hospitable, and at the same time a very practical and successful farmer, who believes in going ahead all the time.
His ancestry is of old and substantial Virginia stock, whose members possessed the fine social characteristic of that old commonwealth, were loyal to the state through the Civil war, and as a rule were of the pros- perous planter class. The grandfather of Pascal B. Smith was Samuel Smith, born at Three Springs, in Washington county, Virginia, about 1790. He died at a good old age in 1861. His life work was farming. He married Rachael Stinson, a neighbor girl, and a native of the same county, of old Virginia stock. She died twelve years after her husband in 1873. They were Methodists in religion, and had seven children, all of whom grew up and six were married and had children. One of the children never married because he remained at home devoted to the welfare of his father and mother. The old homestead in Washington county is still owned by members of the family.
Captain William Smith, the father of Pascal B., was born at Three Springs, Virginia, in 1821, and died near his birth place in July, 1907. Throughout his life he was a planter, and a man of unusual prominence in his section of Virginia. When the war broke out between the states, he enlisted and went to the front as captain in the Forty-eighth Virginia regiment. In the battle at Saltville, Virginia, he was badly wounded. The gun which effected the wound carried a charge of a minie-ball and four buckshots, and the minie-ball and three of the buckshot took effect in him, while he was lying on the ground, one of the bullets striking his shoulder and others injuring his hand and fingers. This wound was given him about the close of the war and peace was declared about the time he got well. He had formerly served as captain of the local militia, and after the war was brevetted colonel of his home regiment of state militia. He also for many years served as a justice of the peace. In politics he was a Democrat, and was looked upon as a leader in the public life of his community. Near his old birth place, Captain Smith married Miss Darsey Fleener, who was born in that locality, about 1826, also representing an old Virginia family. She died in May, 1911. She was of the Lutheran faith in religion, and kept her membership with that church all her life. Her husband was a Methodist. They were the parents of twelve children, nine of whom grew up and are yet living. All are married and all have families of children. Two now live in Indiana. Pascal B. Smith has a sister, Margaret, the wife of Colonel Columbus Pullin, a resident of Muncie, Indiana, and they have seven living children.
Pascal B. Smith, the oldest of the children, was born on the old Virginia homestead, February 24, 1852. His education was received
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in the common schools, and as he grew up he became acquainted by prac- tical experience with the activities of his father's farm. There he con- tinued to live until twenty-three years of age. On July 4, 1875, just one year before the centennial celebration of American Independence, he married Elizabeth Gardner, a native of Scott county, Virginia, where she was born September 22, 1856. Her parents were Ural and Margaret (Barnhart) Gardner, natives of Scott county, where they lived and died prosperous farmers. Mr. Gardner was a California forty-niner, spend- ing more than three years on the western coast, and having exceptional fortune in mining and his other ventures. After returning to Virginia, he gave all his attention to the cultivation of a large plantation. He was born in 1810, and died August 17, 1890. His wife died March 6, 1904, when past eighty years of age. They were a Methodist family. Of the large family of children in the Gardner household, Mrs. Smith and a brother live in Indiana, the latter being J. Perry Gardner of Gas City in Grant county.
After the marriage of Mr. Smith and wife, they lived on a farm in Virginia, until 1890. They then came to Grant county and located on the Schrader farm, near Jonesboro, and three years later took posses- sion and began operating one hundred and sixty acres in the Solomon Wise farm in section fifteen of Fairmount township. He has proved very successful in Grant county agriculture, grows large quantities of hay, clover, corn, oats and wheat, and with the exception of the wheat practically every pound of his crops is fed to the stock on the place. As already noted, Mr. Smith is a hustler, and one of the best farmers in this section of the county.
He and his wife have seven sons and three daughters living, men- tioned as follows: 1. Stephen R., a farmer in Mill township, married Lillie Freener, without children. 2. Calvin D., who married Ethel Overman, lives on a farm in Jefferson township, and had two children, Virginia, and Ilene, the latter dying in infancy. 3. Charles L. is a farmer in Mill township, and by his marriage to Bertlia Clay has three children, L. Vern, Virgil Lee, and Edgar R. 4. James C., who is fore- man in the Jonesboro Rubber Company, married Margaret Jones, and their two children are Warren H. and E. E. 5. Henry C. married Susan Swartz, lives in Jonesboro, and has a daughter, Delene. 6. Daisy E. was liberally educated in the grade and high schools, and is now living at home with her parents. 7. Maudella, a graduate of the high school, and the Marion Normal College, and holding a teacher's license, lives at home. 8. Woodie M. is a junior in the Fairmount Academy. 9. Joseph L. attends the public school, and the youngest, Gladys D., is also a student. One child, Orville S., died at the age of twenty-eight years unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. Smith hold to no particular church, though their children attend the Methodist Protestant Sunday school. In politics he is a Democrat.
JOSEPH A. HOLLOWAY. One of the most attractive and profitable of Grant county homesteads is that located in section twenty-seven of Fairmount township, and owned by Joseph A. Holloway, who is himself of a younger generation of the family in Grant county, and is an up-to- date citizen and progressive farmer, who has made agriculture a very profitable business.
The family history of the Holloways begins with three brothers, who came from England during the colonial days, and one of them located in North Carolina. Of Quaker stock, the family in subsequent genera- tions have always been devoted to that church, and the descendants of the American settlers have been noted for their thrifty, their quiet,
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unassuming virtues, and a fine citizenship. First to be mentioned by name among the descendants of the first settler is Abner Holloway, who married Elizabeth Stanley. They lived and died in North Carolina, were farmers and Quakers, and upright and excellent people. Their four children were Jesse, grandfather of Joseph A .; Isaac, Maria and Sarah, all of whom had families.
Jesse Holloway was born about 1805. In his native state he was married on July 2, 1826, to Eleanor Hinshaw, who was born in the same county and state, February 25, 1810. After their marriage they started to win success in the world as farmers. His wife became noted throughout a large community both in North Carolina and later in Ohio for her skill as a midwife and doctor. They lived for some years in North Carolina, and later moved to Ohio. Their children were born chiefly in the former state, but some of the younger in Ohio.
The nine children of Jesse and Eleanor Holloway are mentioned as follows: 1. Margaret, the oldest, was born September 22, 1828, and now at a very advanced age, is the widow of William Mills, and lives in Neoga, Illinois, with a younger daughter. 2. Abner, born December 6, 1830, was the father of Joseph A. and is given more space in the following paragraph. 3. Amos, born August 29, 1834, is now nearly eighty years of age, is a retired farmer in Monroe township of Grant county, and has a family of children. 4. Timothy, born May 24, 1837, now deceased, lived and died in Randolph county, Indiana, was twice married and had children by both wives. 5. Isaac, born June 29, 1840, now lives in Neoga, Illinois, where he is a retired merchant and retired school teacher, and had two children by his first wife. 6. Elizabeth, born June 24, 1842, married Josiah Ferguson, and lives in Marion with her family. 7. Jesse C., born December 12, 1844, died September 16, 1864, having starved to death in the Libby Prison at Richmond, Vir- ginia, while a prisoner of war. He went out to the front as a member of Company C of the Ninetieth Indiana Regiment of Cavalry. 8. Eleanora, born February 20, 1847, first married James Fleming, and next Elijah Stafford, and for her third husband took Martin Fisher, a Civil war veteran, and they now live in Montana, having one daughter by the third marriage. 9. Sarah, born September 29, 1849, is deceased and was the wife of F. A. Fleming, a farmer living in Monroe township in Grant county and having children.
Abner Holloway was born in Clinton county, Ohio, at the date already given. His parents had moved to Ohio in the early days from North Carolina, and when he was a child they moved on and settled in Grant county in Fairmount township. There in the Friends church, and with the Quaker ceremony, on May 15, 1854, Abner Holloway mar- ried Sarah Rich, who was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, October 7, 1837, and was a child when her parents came to Grant county.
Concerning the Rich family more particular history will be found under the name of Mr. Eri Rich. After his marriage Abner Holloway and wife began life on a farm in Monroe township. In 1882 they moved to Fairmount township, buying land in section twenty-seven. He pros- pered as a farmer, and eventually owned two hundred and fifty-four and a half acres of land, besides having invested interests in Fairmount. His death occurred April 1, 1903. He was a life-long member of the Friends church, and in politics a Republican, always esteemed for his upright character, and public spirited citizenship. His widow is still living, having her home with their children.
There were ten children born to Abner Holloway and wife, and brief mention of them is made as follows: Margaret A. and Sarah, are both deceased, and both were married and left children. The living children
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are: 1. Miriam, is the wife of Sylvester McCormick, living in section twenty-seven of Fairmount township, and having children. 2. Marion married Emma Riffle, lives on a farm in Huntington county, and has three sons. 3. Mary E. is the wife of William Nelson, living in New Mexico, and the parents of four sons and two daughters. 4. Matilda J. is the wife of Elsey Mills, whose home is in New Mexico, and they are the parents of three sons and two daughters. 5. Margaret, now deceased, was the wife of William Ozenbaugh, who lives at Swayzee, and has two living sons. 6. The next in line is Joseph A. Holloway, whose career is described in the following paragraphs. 7. Sarah E., now deceased, was the wife of Burton Leas, and he lives in Upland and has three daughters. 8. Jesse C. married Lillie Corn, lives on a farm in Fairmount township, and has five children. 9. Eri is a farmer of Fairmount township, married Clara Jones, and has one son and three daughters. 10. Arthur A. is a farmer in section twenty-seven of Fair- mount township, and by his marriage to Ella Fleming has three sons and two daughters.
Mr. Joseph A. Holloway was born in Monroe township of Grant county, March 20, 1870. His early education was begun in the public schools and completed in the Fairmount Academy. Choosing farming as his vocation, he bought some property in Fairmount City and divided his time between farm work and teaching for several years. His home was in Fairmount from 1896 until 1899, and at the latter date he moved to Monroe township. In 1904 he came to his father's old farm in Fairmount township on section twenty-seven and there he is owner of one hundred and two acres, making a valuable and most productive farm estate. Its improvements classify it among the model places of Grant county. A fine basement barn, with ample capacity for grain and stock, is a prominent feature of the homestead, while a nicely painted white house affords the comforts of home to himself and family. As a farmer Mr. Holloway believes in sending all his products to market on the foot, and therefore feeds his corn, oats, wheat and hay to his hogs. and fine short-horn cattle.
Politically he has for many years been an active Republican and has served as precinct committeeman and in other party posts. He is now and has been since 1910, secretary of the Fairmount township advisory board. Mr. Holloway was married in Monroe township to Miss Lorana Nelson, who was born there November 1, 1875. She was educated in her native locality, and was well trained and possesses the character fitting her for her duties as housewife and mother. Her parents were Nelson H. and Mathilda (Thorp) Nelson. Her father was born in Grant county, and her mother in Ohio. For many years their home has been in Monroe township, where they are thrifty farmers and active members of the Christian church. There were six children in the Nelson family, two of whom are married. Mr. and Mrs. Holloway have the following children: Nelson A., born December 7, 1896, and now attending school; Clarence C., born March 2, 1898; Ancil D., who was born May 8, 1903; and Ernest W., born November 29, 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Holloway are members of the Friends church, in which Mr. Holloway was reared.
CHARLES E. DAVIS. In the November election of 1912 the citizens of Grant county made a very happy choice for the office of county recorder. Charles E. Davis came to Marion only a few years ago to take a position in one of the local manufacturing enterprises, and by his ability as a business man, and the ready esteem and popularity which he quickly acquired among all classes of citizenship, has for several years been
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recognized as a citizen who deserves promotion, and is thoroughly worthy of the confidence of the voters.
Charles E. Davis was born December 6, 1873, at Oswego, New York. His parents were Richard S. and Lydia (Court) Davis, the former a native of England, and the latter of New York State. For half a cen- tury the father sailed the high seas, and visited every port on the globe. In 1888 he came to the middle west, locating in Allegan county, Michi- gan, which remained his home until his death in 1898, when he was seventy-four years old. The mother is still living there. Of their three children, two are living, and the brother of the Marion citizen is James F. Davis of Allegan county. The father was a man of unusual educa- tion, and took a very prominent part in Masonic circles.
Charles E. Davis has a career in which individual initiative and self effort have been prominent factors. Born in New York, educated there and in Allegan county in the common schools, he left Allegan county at the age of fourteen, and went to seek his fortunes first in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He got a job as ash-wheeler in a large power- house, and his willingness to work and readiness to learn were appre- ciated by several promotions until he was assistant engineer. From there he went to Chicago, and while working there came to a keen realization of the advantages of a good technical training as a prepara- tion for life. Consequently he gave up his leisure and social pleasures, entered Armour Institute of Technology and paid his way while study- ing the course in electrical engineering until his graduation in 1902. He followed his work as an electrical engineer in Chicago until 1907, when he came to Marion to become engineer for the Marion Handle & Manufacturing Company, a position which he has since held.
On November 8, 1894, Mr. Davis married Alice Ortman of Allegan county, Michigan, a daughter of J. H. Ortman. Their four children are Mahlon O., Lucy E., Barbara, and Charles E., Jr., all of whom are at home. Mr. Davis was elected on November 5, 1913, recorder of Grant county on the Democratic ticket, and took office on the first of January, 1914. Fraternally he belongs to the Order of Eagles, the Loyal Order of Moose, and the Crew of Neptune.
L. G. RICHARDS. Grant county owes much to the Richards family, both for the part it has performed in the development of the country from the wilderness in the early days, and also for its substantial cit- izenship and high moral influence. Mr. L. G. Richards is now nearly eighty years of age, has spent all his life in Grant county, is a product of its pioneer schools when all instruction was given in log buildings, and the curriculum was the three R's, and by a long and active career of industry and exceptional business management accumulated an es- tate which at one time was among the largest in Jefferson township.
His grandfather Henry Richards was born either in Virginia or Pennsylvania, was an early settler in the state of Ohio, where it is thought he was married. The maiden name of his wife was Miss Thom, and during their residence on a farm in Guernsey county, Ohio, their children were born. These children were: John, Daniel, Susan, Cath- erine, Jacob. Daniel, who married a Miss Lewis, was a farmer, went out to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in an early day and lived and died there, leaving a family. Susan married John Ogan, a farmer. and a number of years later moved out to Kansas, where they died. Catherine married Nathan Lewis, a schoolteacher, and soon after their marriage went to Kansas, where their lives were spent on a farm. Jacob married Susan Gillispie, and they lived and died in Jefferson township of Grant county, where they were substantial farmers, and of their children some are still living.
L. G. RICHARDS AND WIFE
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Rev. John Richards, father of L. G. Richards, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, in 1810 or 1811. His youth was spent on a farm in his native county, and while there he married Effie Roberts, who was born in Ohio about 1812-13. After the birth of their first son and child, Henry, in 1829 or 1830, they came with other members of the family, including their parents, to Grant county, locating in the wildwoods. All of the family obtained land in Grant county, grandfather Henry Rich- ards getting two hundred acres, and subsequently accumulating eighty acres more, so that his place consisted of two hundred and eighty acres before his death. All of the sons likewise, took up land, and became pioneer workers in the early decades of Grant county's history. Grand- father Henry Richards died when about seventy years of age, some years before the Civil war, possibly as early as 1850. His wife died even earlier.
Rev. John Richards, after moving to Grant county, acquired and improved two hundred acres of land. While a prosperous farmer, and thus providing for the material needs of himself and children, he was likewise one of the prominent leaders in the Primitive Baptist church. Largely owing to his efforts, the church known as Harmony was organ- ized at Matthews. Later he was ordained a preacher, and with saddle- bags and on horseback pursued his work as an itinerant preacher, throughout this section of the state traveling hundreds of miles, and preaching in as many as a hundred different localities. He was one of the pioneer preachers who visited from cabin to cabin with self-denying earnestness, traveling through the unbroken forests, exhorting, counsel- ing, reproving, as occasion demanded, and was always welcome at the pioneer homes. His was the work of a real evangelist, and many classes were organized by him in this part of the state. His home in Grant county was the headquarters for a large following of primitive Baptists, and as many as one hundred and twenty-five people were entertained at the Richards place during the three days' meetings, some of them com- ing from long distances, even as much as a hundred miles, riding on horseback, and in every other pioneer conveyance. His work as a preacher went on, and was concluded only with his death. He was a Democrat in politics, and exerted much influence in civic affairs, as well as in religion. He had lived to see what he believed was the end of the Civil war, passing away early in the sixties. His wife died in middle life about 1850, and she was likewise an active worker in the Primitive Baptist church.
Rev. John Richards and wife had six sons and one daughter, men- tioned as follows: 1. Rev. Henry, Jr., a minister of the Primitive Bap- tist church, organized a class in Coffey county, and later did work. in Oklahoma, where he now lives at the venerable age of eighty-four and still active in his faith. 2. L. G. Richards is the second of the family. 3. Abraham, now living retired in Jefferson township, is seventy-seven years of age, and has a family of his own. 4. Daniel who died in 1907, was twice married, and left two sons and one daughter, who are still living. 5. Jacob, who is in active superintendence of his farm in Jeffer- son township, was twice married, and four children by his first wife are living. 6. Martha, who lives with her third husband in Albany. Indiana, has children by her first husband. 7. Isaac, occupies a farm in Jeffer- son township and has two daughters and one son, the latter being Lewis, who is an editor in the state of California.
Mr. L. G. Richards was born in Jefferson township of Grant county, October 25, 1834. The school which he attended as a boy was in many ways typical of the pioneer temples of learning. It was built of logs, had a puncheon floor, the benches were slabs supported by rough legs, Vol. II-6
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