USA > Indiana > Blackford County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 47
USA > Indiana > Grant County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 47
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
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business in LaFontaine. He remained one of the enterprising business men of that village until 1893, at which time he found a larger field in Marion, and had one of the popular trading centers of this city up 10 1911, when he disposed of his business and has since been retired. For some time his store was located at the corner of Fourteenth and Adams streets, but for sixteen years its site was 1 Washington street, near the railroad tracks.
In 1910 Mr. Poston was elected a member of the city council on the Republican ticket. He was married November 23, 1879, to Laura Pogue, daughter of Wilson T. and Nancy Pogue, of Wabash county, but formerly of Rusk county, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Poston have one daughter, Georgia, wife of Homer Lester of Marion. Mr. Poston is a deacon in the Christian church, and fraternally belongs to the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows in the LaFontaine Lodge in Wabash county.
JOHN GRANT. Although the Grant family, to which John Grant, the present Marion market master belongs, has always been identified with Wabash county and LaFontaine, since the death of Mr. F. MI. Grant, who was a well known horticulturist in that locality, his sons having all located elsewhere, some of them becoming permanent citizens of Marion, and active business men in the community. For many years F. M. Grant sold nursery stock and some of the best orchards in Grant county have been put out by him. He was an authority on horticulture, and was in demand to discuss the fruit-growing proposition before Farmers Institutes in other counties. He was always a member of the State Horticultural Society, and he and Snead Thomas of Marion worked together in advancing local interests in horticulture. Mr. Grant planted the Picket-Hendrick cherry orchard, which is the largest in this part of Indiana, located in Pleasant township, along the interurban south of Fox Station. When John Grant began the wholesale fruit and produce business, he bought the fruit from this cherry orchard for several years.
John Grant spent more than seven years delivering mail on the rural route No. 3 out of LaFontaine, and there were a few Grant county patrons. He has always been interested in Grant county. He was among the first rural carriers in Indiana to deliver mail froin a motor- cycle, and he covered his twenty-seven miles in three and one-half hours. His patrons never objected to being on the end of the route-always had their mail at dinner time. Mr. Grant came to Marion in 1909 and engaged in the wholesale fruit and produce business. When the Marion Market House opened he engaged a stall and within a few months had become market master and devoted himself to building up the market. Grant Brothers are all hustlers, and they are known in several com- munities as active produce dealers. They have branch poultry-packing establishments in several towns. In the way of Grant family genealogy they are descended from Daniel Grant, after whom Grant creek at LaFontaine takes its name. Their ancestor was prominent as a peace- maker among the Indians in the early days. The Odd Fellows ceme- tery along Grant creek is where most of the older members of the family now slumber. Francis M. Grant, father of Mr. John Grant, married Merey Waggoner, and eight children were born to them as follows: Bert Grant married Lottie Fuller-Dausman, and has one son, Paul Grant; Charles E. Grant married Violet Heller, and has three children : Maro, Richard, and Pauline; John Grant, above named at the beginning of this sketch, married Lavina Taylor, and their five children are Lillian, Verle, Jesse, Dilmar and Francis Marion, the last
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carrying the name of his grandfather; Jesse Grant married Virginia Reed; Ida Grant married Delmar Shepard; Nellie Grant married C. E. Perkins and has one child, Aline Perkins; Reid Grant married Hazel Rogers and has one child; and the youngest is Miss Virginia Grant.
While the early history of the Grant family belongs to Wabash county, the above mentioned members of the family are scattered and inore of them are located in Marion than at any other point. They grew up at a nursery and fruit farm, and naturally turned their attention to that kind of business, the boys all having picked berries for the Marion trade while small, and John Grant thoroughly understood the requirements of a city market, when he became market master.
While the several brothers in the Grant family are independent in their interests they also have many interests in common, and when one of them wants anything all want it, and thus they cooperate almost unconsciously, each preferring tlie other in all things. While their father was a member of the Church of the Brethren, they have all affiliated with their mother's church-Disciples or Christian. While they grew up Republicans, in the 1912 election and without premedita- tion, they all found themselves Bull Moose voters. Thus their minds seem to run along similar lines although occupied differently. It is not straining a point to say the Grants are upright, conscientious busi- ness men who have the confidence of the community.
JESSE CLANIN. On section two of Sims township, three quarters of a mile east and three miles north of the town of Swayzee, is located the rural home of Jesse Clanin, one of the prosperous men of Grant county. With almost one hundred and twenty acres of the fine soil of Sims town- ship at his command, Mr. Clanin has never failed to make a good living for his family, is well provided for future needs, and along with security in material circumstances possesses the high esteem of the citizens who have known him through youth and manhood in the community where he has spent all his life.
Jesse Clanin was born on the same section of Sims township where he now resides, November 23, 1860. His parents were substantial and highly respected people, Reuben and Jane (Townsend) Clanin. The father was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, and the mother in Wayne county, Indiana, in which latter locality they were married, and soon afterwards moved to Grant county and located in Sims township in 1859. There they spent the rest of their lives in quiet activities of coun- try life. The mother died in 1875, and the father in 1898, the latter having been born in 1814, and being eighty-four years of age when death came to him. He was a member of the Universalist church. The father had fourteen children, seven of whom are living in, 1913. By his first marriage seven children were born and the same number by his second union, and of the latter marriage four are living at this time, Jesse; Susan, wife of Stephen Carmichael; Thirza, wife of Charles Harold; and Thompson, of Sweetser.
Jesse Clanin grew up on the old farm, and while a boy attended the local schools. On September 25, 1880, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary B. Hall, who was born in the state of Illinois, but has resided in Grant county since early girlhood. They have four children: Arthur, a graduate of the common schools and the business college and Normal College, is private secretary for Sterling R. Holt, at Indianapolis; Frank, a graduate of the common schools and the high school at Swayzee, is a school teacher; Earl is a graduate of the common and high schools and the Marion business college, and is a farmer near Gas City; Anna T. was graduated from both the grammar and high schools and lives at home.
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Mr. Clanin has had membership in the F. M. B. A. In politics he is a Democrat, but in the campaign of 1912 voted the Progressive ticket. For several years he served as constable of Sims township. He has led a life of quiet industry, and is one of the substantial men in his community. He bought his present farm of 120 acres in 1907, and has made many improvements thereon. Prior to this time for twenty-five years, he lived on his fifty-acre farm in section eleven, Sims township, but sold that farm when he bought his present homestead.
JAMES H. CARROLL. This venerable man, now in the seventy-ninth year of his age, who with firm step and unclouded mind attends to his daily routine of affairs, has for thirty years borne a useful part in Grant county, and has been a resident of this section of Indiana for nearly sixty years. Although now retired from active business and living on his beautiful country estate in section twenty-three of Fairmount township, he still manifests a keen and intelligent interest in all that affects the welfare of his home county, and is widely and favorably known as a man of progress and public spirit.
James H. Carroll was born in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky, near Lexington, in Scott county, April 7, 1835. His parents were Jacob and Frances (Hutchinson) Carroll. Jacob Carroll was born in Virginia and of Virginia parentage, though of Scotch-Irish ances- try. With his brother William and a sister, Mrs. Hoover, Jacob Car- roll came to Kentucky and located in Scott county. William Carroll was married in Scott county, and afterwards moved to Missouri where he died, and his widow then returned to Kentucky and spent the remainder of her days in that state. The Hoover family all lived and died in Kentucky. Jacob Carroll was a young man when he moved to Kentucky, and before his marriage enlisted in the War of 1812, in a Kentucky regiment. That fact establishes the very early settlement of the family in the middle west. He went through the war without injury and after his return home took up the life of a farmer. He married Frances Hutchinson in Scott county, and Jacob Carroll lived until after the Civil war, being past eighty years of age. He was a strong Whig in politics, an ardent supporter of Henry Clay. He was a member of no church. After his death his widow moved to Marion county, Indiana, where she died at the home of a daughter, and she was eighty-two years of age at the time. She was a loyal member of the Christian church. Of her four sons and four daugh- ters, all grew up and were married and had families of their own. Two of them died in the state of Kentucky and others came to Indiana, and all are now deceased except James H., whose name introduces this review.
James H. Carroll was reared on a Kentucky farm, and in 1854, at the age of eighteen, with his brother Scott, came to Marion county, Indiana. He began farming in Franklin township, of that county, his brother Franklin having moved thither some years before. It was in Franklin township that James H. Carroll married Eleanore Martin. She was born in Marion county in 1840, a daughter of Alfred Martin, who was born in North Carolina, was married there, and moved to Marion county, Indiana, where he was a pioneer teacher. Comparatively few of those old teachers who taught in the subscription schools made so famous by pioneer stories, can be mentioned by name in local history, but Alfred Martin was one, and a very able man in every way. He spent practically all his life as a teacher, having moved to Indiana during the early twenties, in the pioneer development of the section of the state about Indianapolis
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His death occurred in Marion county when he was a very old man. His politics was that of the Democratic party. His wife, Anna Eliza, belonged to the old school Baptist church. There was a large family of children in the Martin household, and all grew up and were married and are now deceased. Their deaths occurred in Marion county, with the exception of that of Mrs. Carroll, who died in Fairmount township of Grant county, in 1908.
James H. Carroll and wife moved to Grant county, and located in Fairmount township in 1882. There he bought two hundred acres of land and has since had his home on a part of that fine farm. All of it lies in section twenty-three, and its spendid improvements are largely the result of the energy and foresight of Mr. Carroll. He has done very well in life, providing liberally for all his own wants and necessities, and also providing most of his sons with farms, and equipment for starting life. The work by which he has benefited the community has been his enterprise in undertaking the construc- tion of extensive ditches and the tilling of the lowlands in the vicin- ity of his farm, so that a section of Fairmount township originally a swamp has been reclaimed and made now as productive as any other part of Grant county.
The children of James H. Carroll and wife are mentioned as fol- lows: 1. Florence died after her marriage to Perry Tackett, who now resides near Mr. Carroll and has two children. 2. William lives on a farm at Montpelier, Ohio, is married and his children are Earl, Bethel, Arthur, Paul, Orville and Woodrow Wilson. 3. Robert is a farmer in Fairmount township, and by his marriage to Alice Lewis has the following children: Ive, Glenn, Homer, Edna, Palmer, Orin, Clyde, Virgil and Everett. 4. James lives on a large farm at Black- well and married Minnie Lewis. Their children are Dwight, Fay, Floyd, Fern, now deceased, as is also Berenice, Orley, Alma and Eunice. 5. John lives at Hartford City, Indiana, married Myrtle Pugh and has three children,-James, Mary and Hershel. 6. Albert lives on the old homestead. He married Bessie Irwin of Fairmount, who was born, reared and educated in Tipton county, Indiana, and who is the mother of Florence, Dolly, Charles and Albert, Jr. 7. Charles died in infancy. Mrs. Carroll, the mother of these children, was an active member of the Christian church. Mr. Carroll has been a life- long Democratic voter, and is also a strong advocate of the temper- ance cause.
JARIUS A. FILLEBROWN. It would be well nigh impossible to esti- mate in any remarkable degree the comfort and rest that has been made to the general public through the activities of Jarius A. Fillebrown, until recently proprietor of the Marion Mattress Works, established here by him in 1892. It has been estimated that the average person spends something like one-third of his time in bed, and it will not be denied by any one who has given any degree of thought to the subject that com- fortable sleeping arrangements add much to the pleasure of living. It is here that Mr. Fillebrown has played his part in the interests of human- ity, and in many instances has added actual time to the lives of those people who have used mattresses manufactured by the Marion works, as a result of their superiority. But recently, on the 10th of November, 1913, Jarius A. Fillebrown disposed of the business which he had built to such splendid proportions and which contributed materially to the advancement of the business interests of Marion. The works is now known as the Marion Mattress Company.
Mr. Fillebrown was born on the 18th of February, 1855, in Kenne-
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bec county, Maine, and is the son of L. W. and A. J. (Frost) Fillebrown, both natives of Kennebec county and long residents of that place. The father was a practical machinist and devoted the best years of his life to work of that order in his native community. He came to Marion about 1903, and here ended his days. The mother still lives. She made her home with her son Jarius until the 3d of January, 1914, when she went to live with her other son, the Rev. Charles L. Fillebrown, of Lanrens, Iowa. Of the five children that came to these parents there are but the two sons surviving.
Jarius A. Fillebrown received his education in its more advanced stage in Maine Wesleyan Seminary, at Redfield, Maine, and when he was eighteen years old began to work at the machinist's trade under the supervision of his father. For seventeen years he continued in that work in Maine and in Piqua, Ohio. In 1882 the father moved to Piqua, bringing the entire family with him, and in 1892 Jarius A. Fillebrown and his family located in Marion, Indiana. It was then that he estab- lished the Marion Mattress Works, and afterward successfully and profit- able conducted the business, building it to splendid proportions and extending its ramifications until its trade extended over the United States and into South America and the islands of the sea.
Mr. Fillebrown was married in 1877 to Miss N. Margelia Brown, of East Livermore, Maine, where she was born and reared. One child has been born to them, Anna Louise, who is the wife of Norman N. Stevens, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Fillebrowns are prominent in social circles of the city, and have membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, while Mr. Fillebrown was superintendent of the Sunday-school for two years. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Rebekahs, as well as of the Knights of Pythias and its auxiliary, the Pythian Sisters. He is also a member of the Loyal Order of Moose and the Benevolent Crew of Neptune, and is an active member in the Young Men's Christian Association of Marion. A Repub- lican in his political views, he has stanchly upheld the principles of that party but has never displayed any tendency to engage in the political fray of the community. His active work is carried on rather along civic than political lines, and he is recognized as a dominant force in the communal life of the city and as one who looks for the best good of the city in preference to the advancement of any political ideas. As such his life in Marion has been one of the utmost usefulness, and some mention of him and his work should be given proper place in an histori- cal and biographical work of the nature of which this publication partakes.
BRUCE L. PIERCE. This enterprising young merchant of Jonesboro represents the younger generation of a family which became established in this community during the early days, and is the son of the late Edward N. Pierce, who recently died after a career of twenty-five years, which made him one of the most successful men of Grant county. The grocer store operated by Bruce Pierce was established and its trade largely built up by his father, and it is easily one of the best stores of its kind in the entire county, only one other larger so far as known. Its present location is at the corner of Main and Fifth streets. The busi- ness was begun by Edward N. Pierce in 1888 at what was then known as the "Blue Front." The beginning of that business began shortly after the marriage of Mr. Pierce and he and his wife had just one hundred dollars in capital. They started out with a bakery and small restaurant, to which afterwards was added a stock of groceries. It is said that the late Mr. Pierce spent all his nights in baking, and in the day time helped
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about the restaurant. Only a few hours every morning were spent in sleep, and as he kept this up for some years until his business was estab- lished on a substantial basis, it proved undoubtedly permanently injuri- ous to his health. The bread and other products of the Pierce ovens had a great popularity and were bought and consumed by residents all about Jonesboro in a radius of ten miles. In 1890 Edward Pierce, in partner- ship with his father-in-law, Joel Koppeck, built the Pierce & Koppeck Block, two stories high, of brick, and one of the best buildings in the town. After the building was completed, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Koppeck started a general merchandise store in partnership. In a few years Mr. Pierce had finished paying out on his store building, and a few years later Cyrus L. Koppeck, a son of the elder Koppeck, became his partner. In 1900 the younger Koppeck employed one of the storerooms for a meat market, and Mr. Pierce then became sole proprietor of the grocery end of the business. In 1907 Bruce Pierce became associated with his father, being given a third interest, and in 1912 acquired half of the business, and for the past five years has been the active manager of the store. Since his father's death on July 19, 1913, the mother has continued to ยท retain the other half interest, but Mr. Bruce Pierce is the active and responsible manager. In the display of his merchandise and its storage he uses the basement, ground floor and second floor, and also uses one floor in the adjoining building, the original Koppeck part of the block. As a grocery establishment, this is now the oldest under one continuous management in the county, and their selection and extent of stock and facilities of trade, it is not excelled by any other establishment in he county.
Edward N. Pierce, whose death removed so prominent a business man from Jonesboro, was a noteworthy character, and a man whose experiences and accomplishments in life were much out of the common- place routine of most men. He was born in a log cabin on Main street in Jonesboro, December 19, 1855. He was a son of Dr. Levi and (Ensminger) Pierce, both of whom died when he was a young boy, so that he had to make his own way in the world. His father was born in Vir- ginia, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, while the mother was chiefly of Irish stock. Dr. Pierce was educated in Virginia, and prepared for his pro- fession, was married there, and in the latter part of the forties settled at .Jonesboro. There his first wife died, when Edward was a child, and the doctor took a second wife. Dr. Pierce died at Jonesboro when nearly eighty years of age, and for many years had played the part of the old- time country doctor, a man whose kindly and ready counsel and profes- sional skill were ever at the service of his patrons, no matter where they lived, and no matter what obstacles were interposed between the doctor and patient.
Edward N. Pierce having left home about the time of the Civil war found employment at first with a Mr. Charles Ink, in the country, and worked for his board and clothes and ten dollars in cash for one entire year. Somewhat later he changed employers, and Samuel Mart took him into his home and accorded him such treatment as is seldom read of except in old-fashioned sea-tales, when the cabin boys and sailors before the mast were treated with the utmost brutality and severity by their superiors. Edward Pierce was by no means lacking in spirit, and finally revolted from his master, running away, first into the state of Virginia, and finally wandered about the country until he was in the southwestern and western states, and there began a long career of a cowboy. At one time he worked on a ranch owned by an Indian, and was in Missouri during the reign of the noted criminals, the James boys and the Ford gang. He had more or less of a personal acquaint-
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ance with these noted characters of the frontier, and his life as a cow- boy brought him in contact with all the phases of western life, which has been written in books and familiarly depicted on canvas and on the stage. At the time of Mr. Pierce's death, the following anecdote was published as one which Mr. Pierce particularly enjoyed telling as a joke at his own expense: "One evening he rode seventeen miles to call on a young lady. While returning home late at night, through a wild lonesome country, his horse suddenly stopped and refused to go on. In looking around Mr. Pierce saw through the darkness what appeared to be a man on horseback. In the darkness only his white- shirt bosom was visible. Mr. Pierce asked what he wanted and received no auswer. After calling to the unknown several times and getting no reply he shouted that if he did not get out of the way he would shoot a hole through him. As the stranger did not budge, he pulled his revolver, and fired, then galloped home. The next day an advertise- ment appeared offering a reward of one hundred dollars for informa- tion regarding the person who shot the full-blooded mule with a spot of white on his forehead. Mr. Pierce had killed the mule."
Mr. Pierce was about twenty-nine or thirty years of age when he finally abandoned the west, and returned to his old home in Jonesboro. Here he found that his father and his step-mother had both died, but he determined to make Jonesboro the scene of his permanent business career. When some years previously he had run away from his old tormentor, Samuel Mart, it was with the indignant comment that some day he would return and visit a just retribution for his cruel treat- ment. When he got back to Grant county he kept his word, and pun- ished his old employer until the latter begged for mercy which was granted largely on account of his then advanced years. In 1888 Edward N. Pierce was married in Gas City to Miss Rachael Crockett. She was born, reared and educated in Grant county, and is still living. her home being on West Sixth street in Jonesboro, and she is now forty- eight years of age. As a young woman she taught school in this county. Her parents were Joel H. and Nancy (Pemberton) Crockett, who are still living in Jonesboro, which has been their home since before the Civil war. Joel Crockett was a veteran of the Union army, was a business man many years, and also held the office of justice of the peace. In politics the Pierces and the Crocketts were on both sides, the Crock- etts having always been Republicans, while Edward N. Pierce was for many years a Democrat, until MeKinley was candidate in 1896, and thereafter voted the Republican ticket. He was also a Blue Lodge Mason, belongs to the Subordinate and Encampment Degree of Odd Fellowship, and was prominent and popular both outside and inside fraternal ranks. The children of the late Mr. Pierce and wife are two sons, Wayne C., who was born in December, 1892, was educated in the Jonesboro high school and the Marion Business College, later became associated with his father in the grocery trade, and was one of the partners in the large establishment at Jonesboro until his death on July 5, 1913, only a few days before the death of his father. He was married in October, 1912, to Miss Jessie Freeman, of Winnemac, Indiana. Since her husband's death, she has lived in Marion and is engaged in the business college in that city.
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