USA > Indiana > Blackford County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 50
USA > Indiana > Grant County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 50
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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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benefactor. He purchased one hundred and fifteen acres of land, par- tially improved, and in 1869 he took up his residence on his farm, situ- ated in Monroe township. With the passing of years he broadened the scope of his operations, besides making excellent improvements of a permanent order on his homestead. He made judicious investments in adjoining land and eventually accumulated a fine estate of two hun- dred and seventy acres, of which he retains in his possession two hun- dred and four acres, the remaining portion having been deeded to his two sons when they attained legal majority and were thus deserving of this tangible aid in starting their independent careers. Mr. Ferguson still finds much satisfaction in giving a general supervision to his farm and directing its affairs, as his long experience, mature judgment and thorough familiarity with all details of agricultural and stock-growing industry make his counsel authoritative and most valuable.
In politics, though never animated with aught of desire for official preferment, Mr. Ferguson accords a stanch allegiance to the Democratic party, and he has been most liberal in the support of measures and enterprises advanced for the general good of the community. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and both he and his wife are most zealous members of the Christian church, as was also his first wife. He has aided in the founding of many churches of this denomination in Grant county and for many years he continued his active ministrations and labors as an ordained clergyman of his church, having officiated at many weddings and funerals and in supplying vari- ous pulpits in the county. He is one of the veritable pillars of the Lugar Creek Christian church, known to many as the MeKinney church, of which he is a deacon, besides serving as church clerk. The Ferguson family has many representatives in Indiana and they have formed a permanent organization, known as the Ferguson Family Reunion Association. Periodical reunions are held and prove a source of much pleasure and gratification, the president of the association at the pres- ent time being he whose name initiates this review and who has been most prominent in making the gatherings of the family successful and profitable.
On the 1st of March, 1866, Mr. Ferguson wedded Miss Catherine Nebbitt, who was born at St. Mary's, Auglaize county, Ohio, of Hol- land Dutch ancestry and who passed to the life eternal about a decade after her marriage, her death having occurred in 1877. The three children of this union are: Absalom, who is the owner of a good farm in Grant county; Frank, who is likewise owner of valuable farm lands in this county, besides which he conducts a mercantile business, on Railroad avenue, Marion; and John, who resides in Peru, Miami county, Indiana, where he follows general teaming and incidental lines of enterprise. All of the sons are married and have children. In Decem- ber, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ferguson to Miss Lusanie E. Hayes, who has been his devoted companion and helpmeet during the long intervening years and who has been a resident of Grant county from the time of her birth, her parents, Jackson and Mary Ann (Rock) Hayes having been early settlers of the county, where they continue to reside. Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson have two daughters, both of whom were born on the old homestead farm and both of whom were afforded good educational advantages. Mary is now the wife of Charles Nelson, of Marion, the capital city of her native county, and here also resides Martha, who is the wife of Doyle A. Pilcher.
The career of Mr. Ferguson illustrates emphatically the value of consecutive application along normal lines of enterprise, and the story of his life offers both lesson and incentive, for he has not only achieved
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definite and worthy success but has also proved himself mindful of the duties and responsibilities which such success involves, and has been earnest and self-abnegating in the aiding and uplifting of those who have come within the sphere of his kindly and sincere influence.
HENRY C. CREVISTON. Prosperity in capital letters and in all its meanings belongs to Henry C. Creviston, whom every one in Van Buren township knows, and who knows everybody. He has spent all the fifty odd years of his life time there. Mr. Creviston is first of all a very suc- cessful farmer and stockman, and he is also the vice president of the First National Bank at Warren, Indiana. His father came to Grant county in pioneer time, and accumulated a splendid estate, but though indebted to his father's enterprise, Henry C. Creviston has really earned all that he has, and probably would have been equally prosperous if he had started without a cent from anybody. He has that quality of enter- prise in him.
Henry C. Creviston has his home farm on section one of Van Buren township, consisting of one hundred and seventy-five acres of land. In 1899 he put up the comfortable and attractive thirteen-room house in which he and his family reside. In live stock he makes a specialty of breeding Poland China hogs, and every season handles about one hun- dred and twenty-five head. At the present time he has one hundred and thirty-five hogs, and considerable other live stock. Mr. Creviston is well known in Grant county as a poultry breeder. He specializes in the Buff Orpington and Buff Leghorn, crossing these breeds with very satis- factory results. The record of his poultry houses aggregate about one hundred dozen eggs a week during certain parts of the year, and he has made poultry a very important item in his farm enterprise. He has a modern poultry house sixty by fourteen feet wide, and raises about five hundred chickens each year. He keeps three hundred and fifty hens for his laying pens all season through. The annual value of his poultry amounts to about six hundred dollars. Mr. Creviston keeps a number of shorthorn cattle, and has a herd of seven registered shorthorn cows. He has made a reputation as a breeder of this strain, and has a herd of thirty shorthorns. He keeps four brood mares and breeds each season a number of Percheron colts, having at the present time a total of eight head of this stock. For the season of 1913 Mr. Creviston has ten acres in wheat, thirty-five acres in corn, and twenty-five acres in oats. He has a large timber lot from twenty-five to thirty acres on his place, and pastures it. An interesting feature of his farm, increasing its value and availability, is its situation on the Marion, Bluffton & Eastern Traction Line, the cars of which pass his doors on a frequent schedule, every day in the year.
Henry C. Creviston was born August 13, 1857, in Van Buren town- ship, a son of Daniel and Sarah (Pippinger) Creviston. Grandfather Nicholas Creviston was the son of an immigrant from Scotland, who set- tled in Pennsylvania. The Creviston name, perhaps as well known as any other in Grant county, was originally composed of two words, crev- ice and stone. It is an old Scotch name. In 1817 Nicholas Creviston moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio, in which state he died. Daniel Crev- iston, the father, was born in 1815, and died in February, 1880, Penn- sylvania being his native state. He moved at the age of two years with his family to Ohio, and in 1840 came to Grant county, settling on Sec- tion six in Van Buren township, where he entered one hundred and sixty acres of land from the government, and where he spent the rest of his life and reared his children. When he located in that part of Van Buren township, more than seventy years ago, all the country was a wilderness,
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and he cut his own roads, five miles through the woods from Thompson's on the Huntington Pike. One room cabin, which he constructed himself, was the first home of himself and family in this county. He eventually became a very prosperous man, and at one time owned one thousand acres of land. Through his own labors and what he hired, he cleared up five hundred acres of this land in Van Buren and Washington town- ships, and thus made it productive for subsequent generations. Daniel Creviston and wife reared a family of nine children, who are mentioned as follows : E. W., of Marion; Levi, who was an Indiana soldier in the army, and lost his life in the Battle of Lookout Mountain and is interred in the Union Chapel cemetery; Elijah J., deceased ; Martha A. Dickens, of Washington township; Ellen Bradford, of Washington township; Harvey M., of Marion ; Mary Jane, who died at the age of fifteen ; Henry C .; and Mrs. Anna Corey, a widow, residing in Marion.
Mr. Henry C. Creviston as a boy attended the district schools of his native township, and completed his education in the Marion Normal Col- lege. His first professional activities were as a teacher, and he taught four terms in district number three in Van Buren township, that being his home district. On September 15, 1880, when he was twenty-three years of age, he married Miss Josephine Lobdell, a daughter of Aaron T. Lobdell, a pioneer citizen of Grant county. Through teaching and farm- ing, Henry C. Crevistou had saved some money, and had been very eco- nomical and thrifty when a young man, so that he was able to buy one hundred and twenty-five acres of land, and used that as a nucleus for his present fine estate. With the aid and cooperation of his wife he has added to his possessions, and has also received his share of his father's estate.
In material circumstances, Mr. Creviston stands as one of the most prosperous men of Grant county. He has been not less fortunate in his family, and he and his wife reared six children to useful manhood and womanhood. These children are mentioned as follows: Mrs. Perlie A. Bigley, who lives now in Marshall county, was educated in the Marion high school and the Normal College, and for five years was a successful teacher ; Laura E. is the wife of Ernest Keller, of Kendallville, Indiana, and her education was obtained in the Van Buren high school, and she also had musical instruction. Russell G. is a graduate of Van Buren high school, completed a course in the State University at Bloomington and in the Terre Haute Normal School, and is a very capable teacher, his home now being in Marion. Jessie F. is a graduate of the Van Buren high school, taught for two years in the home schools, and is now a student in the Muncie Normal College. Walter W., who has also been given a certificate to teach, is a graduate of the Van Buren high school, and also attended the Marion Normal College. Emma Josephine, the youngest of the family, is a member of the class of 1915 in the Van Buren high school, and it is her purpose to teach school when she has com- pleted her education. In politics Mr. Creviston is a Republican, and is still faithful to the old party, its principles and leaders. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees and the Modern Wood- men of America. He and his wife are members of the Van Buren Dis- ciple church. Mr. Creviston is a stock holder and vice president of the First National Bank of Warren, Indiana, and has been identified with this institution since its organization in 1906, having taken part in its establishment.
BUCHANAN FAMILY OF GRANT COUNTY. The history of a family written by a member of it naturally partakes largely of the personal element. The mutations of time change all things and all peoples
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and while "new occasions teach new duties" and this history deals with the past and its evolutional changes, it is also the story of the present, told today, which in time shall become the history of the past.
According to MacIam's "Clans and Customs," a history of Scot- land, the genealogists of clan Buchanan derive it from a son of O'Kyan, an Irish prince, who came to Scotland in time of Malcolm II anno 1016 and obtained the lands of Buchanan in county Stirling.
The condensed history of clan Buchanan, which tells of its honor- able miltary history, its adherence to Bruce, refusing allegiance to King Edward I of England in 1296; their marriages, births and deaths, all changing incidents of life; their landed possessions which stretched over a distance of about eighteen miles on the north side of Loch Lomond, justly celebrated in song and story, with the house of Buchanan on its banks, now the country place of His Grace the Duke of Montrose; the war-shout "Clan Innis" which passing quickly would in a few hours muster the clan of fifty heritors and their fol- lowers, all of their name; their armorial bearings, motto and badges, tartan and costume, with its large loose plaid and philibeg; the buttons peculiar to the Highlanders; the sporan bearing the war- cry "Clan Innis;" the hose, the bonnet with its badge of two feath- ers, and family portraits which are today in the possession of Her- bert Buchanan Esq. of Arden,-all matters of historical record have no particular bearing upon this paper other than to note their origin as a family and the significance of their Christian names. It is a far cry from Scotland, 1240, to America, 1914, but more than six hundred years ago the Lairds of Buchanan, chiefs of their clan, were the Sirs Alexander, James, John, George and Walter, and wher- ever the family of Buchanan is known in America these names have been repeated again and again.
This much by way of historical record, while tradition tells us that the American Buchanans trace their lineal descent from the three brothers of the name who were brought to this country while mere lads, too young doubtless to appreciate the importance of pre- serving knowledge of family connections in Scotland. Being sepa- rated these brothers became the heads of families, one branch in Pennsylvania, one in Virginia and one in eastern New York.
The family to which the late Alexander Buchanan, for more than sixty years a resident of Marion belonged, was of the Penn- sylvania wing. His father, James M. Sr., was disinherited for marry- ing Rachel McCarthy, a young Irish girl employed in his father's family in the capacity of nursery governess. James Buchanan Sr. moved to Trumbull county, Ohio, then in the Western Reserve and attached for government to the state of Pennsylvania, where were born to them nine children, of which Alexander was the fifth.
His early life was spent on the farm until his fifteenth year, when he was apprenticed to a cabinet maker with whom he worked until he attained his majority. His apprenticeship was served at Youngstown, Ohio, where he attended the village schools during the winter months. James Buchanan Sr. moved to Grant county in 1838, locating on what is known as the Robert Willson farm, south- east of Jonesboro. After some years they moved to their farm in Wabash county, southeast of the village of Ashland. now Lafon- tain. Alexander Buchanan came to Marion in 1840, and with the late David Norton as partner manufactured furniture. This part- nership lasted for several years. After their dissolution, and realiz- ing the need of an undertaking establishment, Alexander Buchanan
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opened up the first one in the then village of Marion, and built the first hearse he used, his wife making the curtains and trimmings for it. In the meantime he continued to manufacture furniture, many pieces of which are still to be found in Grant and Wabash counties. Some of the best known men in the country worked with him, nota- bly Isaiah Cox and Daniel Barley, the latter of whom also served as postmaster for many years. In 1851 Alexander Buchanan sold his business to Samuel Whisler and having been elected county sheriff qualified for that office, which he filled for three consecutive terms, was again elected in 1867, serving three years under a new enact- ment by legislature, retiring from active political life in 1870, but never during life losing interest in the Republican party to which he was a faithful adherent from its birth.
When the first call for three months men to enlist in the war of the Rebellion was made, Mr. Buchanan enlisted as first lieutenant of Company I of the Twelfth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and before taking the field was made its captain, serving his term of enlistment was mustered out, and was prevented from re-enlisting because of loss of his home by fire. At the time of his death, which occurred June 17, 1902, Alexander Buchanan had been for twenty- six years the senior member of the firm of Buchanan & Son, under- takers and marble and granite dealers.
September 9, 1841, Captain Buchanan was married to Miss Julia Ellzroth, daughter of Frederick and Katherine Ellzroth, pioneer set- tlers of Marion. Mrs. Buchanan passed away in March, 1886. Six children were born to them, namely: Simon Monroe, Harriett, Laura, James Monroe, David and Mary Christfield. Their first born and two younger children died in childhood. The second daughter, Laura, was married to H. C. Hathaway at Richmond, Indiana, December 9, 1869. They are the parents of four children, three of whom are still living.
James Monroe Buchanan was born August 21, 1850, and received his education at Miss Julia Norton's school and the "Old Academy" in Marion and at Stanford Biblical Institute at Sanfordville, New York. During his early manhood he served his. father as deputy during his incumbency of office and afterwards was associated with him in a general merchandise business until in 1876 he established the business of undertaking and granite and marble dealing, which has descended from grandfather and father to its present owner and proprietor, James Walter Buchanan.
James M. Buchanan was united in marriage on May 26, 1875, to Mary Thompson, youngest daughter of the late Samuel R. and Martha Thompson, pioneer settlers of Grant county. To them were born two children: Bertha, who married Otis E. Little of Boston, Massachu- setts, June 6, 1900; and James Walter, who married Miss Elizabeth Hoobler April 12, 1910. The latter are the parents of a little son, nearly three years of age, the sixth James Buchanan in direct descent, five of whom have lived in that county.
James Monroe Buchanan passed away in the prime of life and usefulness April 1, 1913, aged sixty-two years. It is perhaps given to few men to leave a record of such unblemished character and upright living at home and abroad, wherever the vocation of a busy life called him. A man of broad outlook, generous impulses, tender charity and enduring friendship, few deaths have occasioned such a general sense of loss as has his, and only recently a friend in speak- ing of him said, "Today as at the time of his death I regard the death of such a man a public calamity, but the influence of such a life will live while memory of him lasts."
Vol. II-22
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At the suggestion of a friend and church brother, is quoted the following tribute read at the first meeting of the official board held after his death, fittingly submitted by Captain J. W. Miles, who for more than a quarter century had been a brother trustee with James Buchanan in the Temple Congregational church, of which they had been members since early manhood, the parents and families of both also being members, while the grandparents of both men had been among its founders: "It is eminently fitting for the official board of the Temple Congregational church of Marion, of which our late brother James M. Buchanan for many years was an honored member, to give an expression of its sense of loss at his passing from us, and to offer an expression of condolence to his immediate family whose loss is greater than words can express. The members of this board and of the church, as well as all who knew Brother Buchanan, can bear witness to his integrity and his good character as a Christian man and citizen. But it is in the church where his loss will be more keenly felt than anywhere outside of his family. His activity in the church he loved was known to all of us. Her interests and her success were dear to his heart, but his Christian work was not con- fined to his own church-he was a Christian at work everywhere."
And here in this brief history of a family whose interests are iden- tified with that of our home city Marion it is realized that if another chapter is added it must be of the future and the work of future his- torian. As it is only by the achievements of the past we may hope to measure the possibilities of the future and as the growth of any family of peoples, their various ramifications, their failures or suc- cesses cannot be prescribed, knowing that brave lives bravely lived may prove an incentive for future emulation, we pause with the hope that inasmuch as the opportunities of today for useful honorable careers are so great they may be appreciated and correspondingly improved. So we close looking trustfully forward in the belief that the fruit of every pure and honest life repeats itself as harvest fol- lows seed time through successive generations.
It might indeed be pleasing to ponder, if old conditions had remained unchanged; if titles and landed estates had been handed down through succeeding generations; since it is a human weakness to love and perhaps unduly estimate earthly honors such as these, it might indeed be pleasing to our "amour propre" to dream of family greatness, place and power, yet, since life is so much fuller than any book, when we consider the broader life and the greater opportunities that come to the people of a free land, of the privileges of being an American citizen, for, as a late writer has said, in spite of European and American criticism, of rancor and vehemence, of the cataclysmic era of change through which the world is now passing, the United States of America remains the greatest country in the world and the living hope of mankind. Therefore we close thoroughly in accord with the sentiment of Scotland's greatest poet, that
"A prince can mak' a belted knight A marquis, duke, and a' that, But an honest mon's aboon his might, Gude faith he mauna, for a' that.
For a' that and a' that Their dignities and a' that, The pith o' sense and pride o' worth Are higher rank than a' that."
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JOHN T. CAREY. Three generations of the house of Carey have left their imprint upon the life of Grant county, Indiana, and a fourth generation just coming into activity in the business of life gives promise of equaling the excellent work of their progenitors in the community that has so long known and honored the Carey family. The first of the name to locate in Grant county were four sons of John Carey, the paternal grandfather of John T. Carey, whose name initiates this review.
John Carey, it is presumed, was born in Virginia, coming of an old and well established family, and he subsequently located in Clinton county, Ohio. He settled on a farm there and devoted himself to agricultural activities, spending the most of his life there. He came to Grant county, Indiana, to visit his sons, and his death soon after- ward occurred in Liberty township. He was then past seventy-five years of age, and his life had been one of singular usefulness in those communities that he had called home. His good wife later died in the same township, when she had reached the age of about eighty-three, and both lie buried in Oak Ridge cemetery. Her maiden name was Margaret Green, and, like her husband, was a Virginian, it is assumed, though accurate facts as to the early life of these fine old people are not of record and only reports by word of mouth are available. They were married in Clinton county, Ohio, where they first met, and together they continued to live there for a great many years. They were Quakers, and reared their children in that simple and fine old faith.
John Carey, their son and the father of the subject of this review, was born in Clinton county, Ohio, in 1816, and he died on July 19, 1895. He grew up in his native community, and there learned the trade of a carpenter, but after coming to Grant county he followed farming. In Clinton county he met and married Eliza Moon, and she died while yet in the prime of life, leaving her widowed husband with six children. In 1849 John Carey took his motherless brood of children and came to Grant county, here to locate on new and untried land in section 18 of Fairmount township. He brought to his new home and his new enterprise a vast and telling energy that soon made his wilderness farm a real home and a productive bit of soil. He improved his first possession, and with the passing years gradually acquired more until he soon owned 240 acres, eighty acres lying in Fairmount township and 160 acres in Mill township. He later, how- ever, sold 120 acres, and in 1888 took up his residence in Jonesboro, where he finally died. Soon after he took up his residence in Grant county Mr. Carey married a second time. The lady of his choice was Lydia Hollingsworth, nee Jones, the widow of John Hollingsworth, who died and left his widow with one daughter, Lucinda Hollings- worth.
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