USA > Indiana > Blackford County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 5
USA > Indiana > Grant County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 5
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Born on a farm in Hancock county, and educated in the district schools and in the Greenfield high school, John A. Rhue began his career as above stated with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and spent two years in the service of the same. He then received appointment as a cadet in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he remained for two years. On returning from Annapolis, he took the temporary management of the Western Union town office at Greenfield, having incidentally picked up telegraphy while with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Then in 1897 he entered the employ of the Greenfield Bank- ing Company, and ran errands, made collections and assorted checks and all other duties that were required of him. Mr. Rhue remained with that banking institution for twelve years, and enjoyed many promotions up to the responsible post of cashier. As a skillful manager of banking busi- ness, his reputation had extended beyond the confines of his home com- munity, and in 1909, without any solicitation on his part he was invited to become a state bank examiner, and was assigned to the Northern Indiana Territory. His work in this connection brought him into association with all the state bank association officers in Northern Indiana, and as result of this acquaintance and high regard he received another invitation in April, 1911, this time to become vice president of the Marion National Bank, a post which he accepted and which he has since filled. In one phase his experience as a banker is probably
MR. AND MRS. ALLEN C. TUDOR.
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unique. He still held his place of cashier in the Greenfield bank, during his term as state bank examiner, and had already accepted and been formally installed as vice president of the Marion National Bank before severing his relations with the Greenfield Banking Company and with the State Banking Department, so that for a short time he held all three posts. Mr. Rhue has been a resident of Marion since July, 1911. He owns a fine farm of one hundred acres situated a mile from Green- field in Hancock county, and the management of this estate is his chief recreation and pleasure aside from business. He is also interested as an investor in various other undertakings.
Mr. Rhue is a lover of music, and during his residence at Greenfield was for twelve years connected with the Home Orchestra at that place. On September 22, 1908, he married Miss Mary Todd, of Bluffton, a daughter of Hon. J. J. and Mary (Studebaker) Todd, one of the best known families of the state. J. J. Todd, her father, was formerly grand master of the Masonic order in Indiana. The two children of Mr. Rhue and wife are Mary, born August 13, 1909, and Jane, born August 9, 1910.
Mr. Rhue is himself prominent in Indiana Masonry, having passed through all the degrees of the York Rite at Greenfield, including the Lodge, Chapter and Commandery, and having attained thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite and being affiliated with the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis. He has served as Master of his Lodge, high-priest of the Chapter and eminent commander of the Commandery, besides having been worthy patron of the Eastern Star. Mr. Rhue is a member of the Marion Golf Club, is a Republican in politics, and he and his family belong to the Methodist church in Marion.
ALLEN C. TUDOR. The breeding of thoroughbred Belgian and Per- cheron horses has been developed to an important industry by Mr. Tudor at Upland, where he has his farm and stables, and all the facilities for successful management of this interesting and profitable branch of the live stock industry. At the head of his stables, is the Belgian stallion Noirhat Damier now seven years old and imported from abroad in 1908. This horse took the second premium at the International Stock Show in Chicago. He weighs 2,060 pounds. Mr. Tudor also owns Jaddus, a Normau stallion imported in 1912, and which has already made a fine record as a breeder. Jaddus is a four-year old, and weighs 1,800 pounds. Another imported horse found at the Tudor place is Taupin, which has been in service several years, is favored by a large number of farmers in this section of the state, and the general average of his eolts is perhaps as high as can be eredited to any other breeding stallion in this country. As a background to his breeding stables, Mr. Tudor owns a fine little farm of forty aeres, adjoining the village of Upland. He purchased and located there in 1912, moving from Monroe township, where for a number of years he had been engaged in the same line of business.
Allen C. Tudor was born in Fayette county, Ohio, November 6, 1868. His father was William Tudor and his grandfather Stephen Tudor, the latter a native of Pennsylvania and the former of Ohio. The grand- father died in Ohio, and William Tudor died in Grant county in Decem- ber 1910, at the age of seventy-one years. William married Margaret Pierce, who died aged thirty-two in 1874 in Grant county. They settled in Grant county not long after the birth of their son Allen who was reared and edueated here. He was the second in a family of four sons, and two daughters, all of whom are living and are married. After leaving school he identified himself with agriculture, and his influence soon led him to specialize in live stock, and for a number of years he has had a successful experience in the breeding of horses.
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In 1900 at Upland, Mr. Tudor married Miss Mary Mariah Thomas, who was born and reared in Decatur county, Indiana, a daughter of Edward Thomas, who died in Ohio, but whose widow now lives in Boone county, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Tudor have the following children : Pearl, Lucy, William, Opai and Orris.
THOMAS DIGGS THORP is a native son of Grant county and a citizen of excellent standing in this part of the state. His life in this county has been a widely useful one, and he has filled prominent places in public life during the years of his active career. In educational matters he was ever foremost, and he practiced law for some years in this county, but the great work of his life has been in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he was prominent for many years.
The parents of Thomas D. Thorp were Rev. Alfred and Becca (Moor- man) Thorp, both natives of North Carolina. The father and mother came to Indiana when children, locating first in Wayne county and coming on to Grant county in about 1832, when he settled on the farm which became the family homestead, and which is still in possession of the family, or rather is now owned by the youngest sister of Mr. Thorp of this review.
Rev. Alfred Thorp was a minister of the Wesleyan church and he organized the first Methodist Episcopal church in this vicinity, in which he was a preacher at the time of his death. He lived on his farm all his life, and to him and his wife were born ten children, four of whom are living today. They are briefly mentioned as follows: Mrs. Julia Ann Brookshire, now a resident of Pasadena, California ; Mrs. Ursula Double Tuttle, of Fairmount, Indiana ; Mrs. Mary P. Burnier, of Grant county ; and Thomas D. Thorp, of this review. The mother of these was a daughter of the Moorman family, as has already been mentioned, but she was closely connected with the Diggs family, famous in English history, representatives of which came to the colonies and came to be known among the First Families of Virginia. The family was prominent in the history of the Old Dominion for more than a century. Rev. Thorp died in 1848, his widow surviving him until 1891.
Thomas D. Thorp received his education in the old Grant County Seminary and at Asbury (now DePauw) University, at Greencastle, Indiana, until his sophomore year, when he went to the Indiana State University at Bloomington, from which institution he was graduated. He taught school in Grant county for a number of years and for a brief time was engaged in the practice of law, after which he was for nine years county superintendent of schools. He is credited with the work of grading the country schools in the state of Indiana, a most advantageous step in rural education, as has been well proven since the work went into effect. Mr. Thorp then entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in the business of the church he was engaged for many years thereafter. He is now retired, however, and gives his entire attention to the care of his large property interests.
Mr. Thorp is a veteran of the Civil war, in which he served under General George Wagner, with the rank of Second Lieutenant, in the Army of the Cumberland. He saw a deal of active service during the term of his service, participating in the battle of Pittsburg, at Perrys- ville, and other equally important engagements. For fourteen years after the war his church work was confined to his superintendency of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday school, but he then went into the ministry as a graduate of a theological school, continuing for many years, as has already been ontlined.
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Mr. Thorp married Miss Alice Shattuck, of Delaware, Ohio, a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan University, and to them has been born one son, Paul D. Thorp, who was recently graduated as a member of the class of 1913 in the Ohio Wesleyan University. He is a baritone singer of ability and promise, and has been manager of the Varsity Quartette for two years, and now goes to Ohio State University to continue his law and study journalism. He is now reading law, pre- paratory to a career in the legal profession. He is a member of the Phi Delta Theta, of which fraternity his father, Thomas D. Thorp, was also a member in his college days, and still is.
Mr. Thorp, it is safe to say, is one of the halest men in these parts. He comes of a family that is especially long-lived, his mother's family being one noted for its longevity, while his father had an uncle who lived to the patriarchial age of one hundred and seven years, and at the time of his death was seemingly hale and hearty, being engaged in hoeing in his garden but a short time before he passed away. On his mother's side, the Diggs family is one of the oldest in America today, her ancestry being traced directly down from 1583 in England, to their settlement in Virginia in about 1615, and the later settlement of the family in its various branches in North Carolina. The history of the family is an interesting one, but lack of space makes further mention thereof impracticable at this point.
ALVA JOHNSON. Among the younger of the business men of Marion, Indiana, none is better known for his energy and progressive ideas, as well as the practical ability to carry them out, than Alva Johnson. Not yet turned thirty, Mr. Johnson is a member of the well known firm of J. Winters and Company, and is rapidly forging to the front as a real estate man. Although he has resided in Marion only a short time he has won a large measure of popularity and has taken an active part in the varied interests of the city.
Alva Johnson was born in Jefferson township, near Upland, Grant county, Indiana, on the 30th of April, 1885. He is a son of James Noah Johnson and Bell (Connelly) Johnson. The father was born in Jefferson parish, Grant county, and the mother in Wayne county, Indiana. The father was a son of James and Elizabeth Johnson who came into Indiana from Guernsey county, Ohio, and settled on the place that has since become known as the Johnson homestead in Jefferson township. This was in 1843 and here James Johnson lived until his death on December 1, 1910. James and Elizabeth Johnson had eight children, only four of whom grew to maturity, as follows: John, who died at thirty-five; Solomon, of Jonesboro, Indiana; James Noah, who died in 1893, and Emma, who lives in Jefferson township, Grant county. James Noah Johnson lived on his father's farm until about the time of his wife's death in 1890. He then engaged in the banking business, first working in a bank in Fairmount for a year and then he organized the Upland Bank, his father, James Johnson, being president, and he him- self, cashier. James Noah Johnson and his wife had three children, Bertha, who is the wife of Charles H. Snyder, of Upland; Alva Johnson and his twin sister, Elva, who married Charles F. Marley, of Upland.
The father died in 1893 and the three children went to live with their grandfather, making their home with him until his death at the age of eighty-nine. At his death these three children each inherited 560 acres of valuable land. For six months previous to his death the venerable old man had been blind, and his two granddaughters took the tenderest of care of him.
Alva Johnson was educated in Grant county, first attending the
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township school in Jefferson township, from which he was graduated in 1900, and then becoming a student in the Upland high school. He was graduated from the latter in 1904, and until 1911 he lived on the farm. During that year he removed to Fairmount, and on December 27, 1912, his home and entire property there was destroyed by fire, in consequence of which he determined to move to Marion. He came to Marion on March 4, 1913, and bought a half interest in the firm of J. Winters and Company, thus becoming the company part of this firm. J. Winters, "the land man," is one of the most successful business men of Marion, and the two form a strong partnership, destined to become one of the best known real estate firms in Indiana. Mr. Johnson has considerable landed interests, being the owner of 360 acres in Liberty townslrip and also having interests in Upland.
Mr. Johnson is a member of the Methodist church, and in political matters he is a Republican. In the fraternal world he holds allegiance with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Johnson was married on July 23, 1906, to Miss Gertrude Burnside, a daughter of George W. and Elizabeth (Seybold) Burnside, of Marion. They have two children; James Noah, Jr., aged six years and Elizabeth Rebecca, better known as Betty, a lively tot of three.
JOSIAH WINTERS. The story of the life of Josiah Winters, of Marion, Indiana, or as he is known in this section, J. Winters, "the land man," is a good example of American energy and determination. Mr. Winters is one of the most successful real estate men in this section of the state and his success is entirely due to his own efforts. He has worked tire- lessly, early and late, and that he has taken advantage of no man, his popularity throughout the section proves.
Josiah Winters is a native of Grant county, having been born on the 29th of February, 1868, in Fairmount township. His father was Thomas D. Winters and his mother was Christiana (Baker) Winters, both of them being natives of the state of Pennsylvania. The father of Thomas D. Winters came to Grant county at an early date in its history. He settled on a farm South of Marion, and he improved this property, building upon it one of the finest homes in the county. He later sold this place and bought another three and a half miles southeast of Jones- boro. He eventually became the owner of about six hundred acres of land in that section and he lived there until his death in 1880. - Thomas D. Winters, his son, followed in his father's steps and became a farmer. He spent his life in this occupation and died about 1896. His widow is still living and makes her home with her children. There were twelve children born to Mr. and Mrs. Winters, six of whom are living. These are as follows: W. M. Winters, foreman at the Thompson Bottle Works, in Gas City, Indiana; Mrs. Mary A. Baldwin, of Fairmount, Indiana ; Mrs. Sarah A. Love, of Marion; Mrs. Christina Kelsey, of Toledo, Ohio; Mrs. Ollie Lancaster, of Marion, and J. Winters.
Beginning life with only a common school education, farming seemed to be the only vocation open to young Josiah Winters. For thirteen years, therefore he farmed in various parts of Grant county, and during these years he lived carefully and put aside as much money as was possible for he was ambitious to be something more than a small farmer. He found himself, at the end of these years with enough money to purchase seventy-two acres of land in Washington township, for which he paid $1,375 in cash and gave a mortgage for the balance of $2,125. By hard work and good management he was able to pay off his indebted- ness in eighteen months. And it was not long after he had begun to feel that he was on the road to success, that his wife's health began to fail
MR. AND MRS. HOWARD LYON AND FAMILY
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and he found it necessary to move into Marion. He therefore sold his stock and farm machinery and with the proceeds purchased two lots on Spence street for $1,200. On these lots he built a modern ten-room house at a cost of $6,000, this being the first home which he owned. After his removal to Marion he traveled for a year as salesman for L. K. Price and Company. Hardware was his line, and his territory was Grant county. During the following year he sold windmills and cream separators in Grant and the adjoining counties. He then purchased a forty-six acre farm east of Gas City and there remained six months, when he sold and returned to Marion where he had built on Spencer avenue, and where there were better openings for him.
On the 1st of December, 1906, Mr. Winters engaged in the real estate business in Marion and he has been phenominally successful. During his first year in this business he did $150,000 worth of business. It was evident that he was going to have an increasing amount of business to handle and so the next year he took a partner, Leo Lyons. The business the second year was estimated at $200,000. After the death of Mr. Lyons, Mr. Winters continued alone, employing his son to assist him, until the latter went to Davenport, Iowa, to enter a medical school. Since opening his real estate office six years ago Mr. Winters has done business to the amount of $1,589,802.80, this being exclusive of his loan business. In 1912 the increase of his business over that of the previous year was $83,445.50. In 1913 he became associated with a company in New Mexico, and has purchased 680 acres of land for his own special benefit. Since his business is too large to be managed by one man he took as a partner, on March 1, 1913, Alva Johnson, of Fairmount township, who is mentioned elsewhere in this volume.
Mr. Winters is a strong member of the Prohibition party, and eight years ago was that party's candidate for sheriff of Grant county. He is a member of the Christian church and is a deacon in the First Christian church, being one of the executive committee that had the building of the new church in charge. He lives in a handsome home on Spencer avenue and his offices are in the Marion Block.
Mr. Winters was married on the 18th of July, 1885, to Miss Mary J. Marine, who was born in Mill township, Grant county, Indiana, and was a daughter of Nathan Marine. Four children were born.of this marriage. Of these, Pearly B. Winters and Elsie L. Winters are living, and Onda E. and Eita M. are dead. After the death of his first wife Mr. Winters married a second time. Miss Jessie J. Broadt, of Hunting- ton county, Indiana, became his wife on March 30, 1912.
HOWARD LYON. Grant county has received some of its finest family stocks from Virginia, transplanted first to Guernsey county, Ohio, and thence to this section of Indiana. Several branches of the Lyon family, who early manifested a disinclination to live in slave territory, thus settled in Grant county not long after the establishment of civil gov- ernment here in 1831. The following article describes the more impor- tant incidents in this family migration with special reference to the immediate family of the above well known Jefferson township citizen, whose old home place on sections 20 and 21 has many associations with the Lyon name.
They came originally from Sweden, migrating to England during the reign of Peter the Great and thence to America in the colonial epoch. The first definite information of the family in this country is in Virginia, and before the Revolutionary war. It is not known whether any of the family participated as soldiers in that war. The grandfather of Howard Lyon was Richard Lyon, born in the Old Dominion about Vol. II-3
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1775. On March 7, 1795, he married Elenor McBride, a Virginia girl of Scotch-Irish ancestry. They lived in Virginia until 1814. Richard Lyon was strongly opposed to slavery, and for that reason determined to move his family to the free states of the north and west. Thus he settled in Guernsey county, Ohio, about the close of the War of 1812, and he and his children were pioneers in that section, making a home in the wilderness and rearing his family under primitive conditions. His children were as follows: 1. Mary, born May 21, 1797, married John Grayham, and came to Indiana, both dying in this state when old people. They left two children, Ellen and Rachael. 2. Sarah, born February 24, 1799, married Thomas Deeren, lived in Guernsey county, Ohio, until after the death of Mr. Deeren, and his widow died in Grant county, Indiana, but her body was taken back and laid by the side of her husband in Guernsey county, O. They left a large family of chil- dren, who were remarkable for their length of life, several living to be more than eighty years of age, five living at one time, and all past fourscore, and three are still surviving and about ninety years of age. 3. Michael, born April 15, 1801, lived the life of a farmer in Guernsey county, O., and married Mary Slater, both passing away when old people. Their children scattered to various parts of the country. 4. Elizabeth, born May 20, 1803, married John Reasoner, were early set- tlers in Indiana, where they spent their active lives in Delaware county, and died when old and left children. 5. James, born August 20, 1805, married Nancy Slater, came to Grant county, and died on the home farm in Jefferson township, when in the neighborhood of seventy years of age. They had several children. 6. John, who was the father of Howard Lyon, was born September 14, 1807, and more particular mention of him follows this paragraph. 7 and 8. Elias and Elijah, twins, born December 20, 1809, the former married Mahala Pearl for his first wife, and Mrs. Rachael Coats for his second, and there were children by both wives, and they all spent the greater portion of their active careers in Grant county. Elijah married Hannah Anderson, and they lived out their lives in Van Buren township of Grant county and left children. 9 and 10. The next two children were twins, and died in infancy unnamed. 11. William, born October 2, 1818, was mar- ried and died in Grant county in middle life, leaving a son and a daugh- ter. He was a cabinet maker by trade. 12. Richard, Jr., born May 20, 1815, married a Miss Funk, and they had three children; he died in Henry county, Indiana, where he was known as a manufacturer of medicine. 13. Samuel, born March 8, 1820, spent many years of his life in Missouri, and by his marriage to Mary Stephens, had several daughters.
John Lyon, who was born in Virginia, September 14, 1807, was seven years old when the family migrated to Ohio, where he arrived at his majority in Guernsey county. He followed various occupations, chiefly on a farm, but also was employed on the old national pike in Ohio, and also engaged in the tobacco business, from which he made some profit. In 1837, he walked all the way from Ohio to Indiana in order to look over the land and select the site of a future home. He found one hundred and sixty acres to his liking, on the Mississinewa River, being the northeast quarter of section twenty-one of Jefferson township. Having investigated and decided upon this tract he con- tinued his journey on foot to the Fort Wayne land office, where he formally entered a quarter section and then continued on in the same manner to his Ohio home. There he met his sweetheart, who soon after- wards went on with her mother to Blackford county, Indiana, and he followed as soon as he could dispose of his interests in Ohio and make
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ready for a permanent establishment in Indiana. At that time Black- ford county had not been organized and its territory was a part of Delaware county, so that the young woman who was to become his wife took up her residence temporarily in the latter county so that she would be convenient to the county seat in readiness for marriage. This young woman was Nancy McVicker. She was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, December 11, 1815. Her grandfather Dennis MeVicker, was a native of Virginia, and the son of a Scotchman who came to the United States and died in Virginia. Miss Me Vicker's father was Archibald MeVicker, a native of Virginia, but who died in Guernsey county, Ohio, and his widow Elizabeth survived him and brought her children to Indiana, even- tually settling in Jefferson township of Grant county, where she died when an old woman.
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