USA > Indiana > Blackford County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 8
USA > Indiana > Grant County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 8
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Mr. Needler was first married in Blackford county, Indiana, to Lydia Cunningham. She was born and reared in that county, her birth taking place in 1832. and she died in 1891. The children by her marriage were as follows: Franklin died after his marriage leaving two children, who live with their mother in Oklahoma; Mary M. is the wife of W. H. Coffin, a farmer in Delaware county, and they have children; Clementine lives in Muncie, the wife of Willard Nolan, and their children are five in num- ber; Emazetta is the wife of Charles Dodson, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and they have one daughter; Andrew J. is a resident of Muncie, and has a family of two children; Charles is a farmer in Jefferson township, and has six children. For his second wife Mr. Needler married Elizabeth Monroe, who was born in Grant county, July 23, 1844, a daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Shirar) Monroe, who came from Pennsylvania, were settlers first in Ohio, and later came to Grant county in 1840, where they were among the early farmer settlers. Mr. Monroe died March 28, 1856, and his wife on March 27, 1875. They left two sons and two daugh- ters, who are still living and three of them are married.
JOHN BORREY. The era of natural gas brought many able citizens to Grant county-men of large and varied industrial and commercial experience, whose enterprise and energy has done much to develop the county during the last thirty years. After a number of years as a suc- cessful glass manufacturer, John Borrey has chosen Fairmount as the home of his quiet years and prosperous retirement. With an ample
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share of the world's goods, he shows a fine sense of responsibility toward his community, and is employing his means and influence for the im- provement of his home locality.
Few Grant county families have so interesting a history as that of the Borreys. They are of French ancestry, and Mr. Borrey's grandparents lived and died in Alsace. This border province of the German Empire has been changing destinies during the last century, so that a native of Alsace may properly claim to be either a native of France or of Ger- many. At the time of the Napoleonic wars, Alsace was taken from Ger- many and made a part of the French Empire. So it remained until the Franco-Prussian war of 1871, when it became one of the prizes of the war, and was returned to Germany and has since been a part of the German Empire. The grandparents of John Borrey spent their lives in Alsace while it was under French dominion. They were Catholics in religion, and the grandfather followed the family occupation of glass blowing. Mr. Borrey has no information concerning the names of his grandparents. However, it is known that there were four children, two sons and two daughters, the sons having been John and Michael, and one of the daughters named Elizabeth. These children were born in Alsace, but subsequently all moved into Germany, where they spent their lives in quiet industry and comfortable home life. They all reared families of their own and for many years had their homes at Sauerbroke, Germany.
Michael Borrey was born in Alsace in 1820. He learned the trade of glass blower when a young man, went to Germany, served according to the law of the land for three years in the army and then took up his regular work as a glass blower. He followed with great skill a special department of this work in the manufacture of large carboys, carboys being large glass containers. His father had worked at the same line of glass blowing in France, and the two sons on going to Germany took a contract for the blowing of these large bottles under condition that all the bottles should bear the family name of Borrey stamped upon them. Both brothers John and Michael continued in the manufacture of car- boys until they were sixty years of age. They were large and powerful men and were masters of their trade. Michael died in Germany when eighty-two years of age. Throughout his active career he had been a hard worker, and enjoyed peculiar esteem in his community. He mar- ried a German girl named Salma Schamm, a native of Frederickstahl, one of the great glass manufacturing centers of Germany. She died twenty years before her husband. All the family were Catholics in religion. The children of Michael and wife were: Lena, who married a glass blower in Germany, and they spent their lives in that country, leav- ing a family of children; Sophia, married a window glass blower, and they were the parents of five children, the family spending their lives in Germany; Lizzie married Joseph Smith, also in the window glass trade, and they died in Germany, leaving a son and two daughters; Jacob, was a bottle blower in Germany, married and died when his only child was one year of age, while his widow is still living; Netja married a German glass blower, later moving to the United States, and both died at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, leaving two sons and a daughter.
Mr. John Borrey of Fairmount, a brother of Michael, just named, was born in Frederickstahl, Germany, near the French border, August 9, 1848. He grew up there, learned the glass blower's trade both in the manufacture of bottles and window glass. In 1868 he decided against serving in the German Army, and in order to escape that rule he emi- grated to the United States, landing in New York City. From there he went to Pittsburg, and on account of his skill soon found a profitable Vol. II-4
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employment in one of the large bottle manufacturing and window glass houses of that vicinity. After four or five years he moved to Ravenna, Ohio, where he spent sixteen years at his trade. For about five years of this time he was manager of the plant. As a glass blower he had few superiors, and was a quiet and efficient worker, well minded his own business and still was popular and a good manager.
While a resident of Ravenna, Mr. Borrey married Louisa Hahne, who was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, April 4, 1854, of German parentage. Her parents, when she was fifteen years old, settled at Ravenna, Ohio, her father having been a glass flatner, but later taking up the occupa- tion of farming. Her father died near Ravenna, Ohio, at the age of seventy-three, while her mother survived until eighty-eight years of age. Her parents were married in Germany, and came to the United States in 1848.
Mr. Borrey through his early career both when single and after his marriage exercised a great deal of thrift and economy in the management of his financial affairs, and as he commanded high wages, both as a blower and as manager, he was early on the highroad to prosperity. In 1888 he went to Massillon, Ohio, where he took stock in a window glass manufacturing company. Becoming manager, he remained there until the development of the natural gas belt in Indiana, and the consequent cheap fuel made it profitable for the company to move away. The com- pany accordingly dismembered the entire factory, and brought it in pieces to Greenfield, Indiana, and during 1890-91 rebuilt the entire fac- tory. It was conducted for the manufacture of window glass success- fully until 1897, when Mr. Borrey sold his interest. He then came to Fairmount and established a glass factory in this Grant county town. From the start, largely owing to his long and varied experience, and a peculiarly able management, he was successful, and after about a year sold out the plant at a large profit over its cost to the American Window Glass Company, the trust. He was later employed by the combine, as a special manager, going from one factory to another to see that things were all right, but finally gave up the glass business altogether, and retired to his fine home at 510 East Washington Street in Fairmount. He now enjoys a large and ample prosperity, and among other property owns one of the best business blocks in the city at the corner of Main and Washington Streets which he erected. Although he had well earned a period of leisure, Mr. Borrey is not the kind of man who can sit down and fold his hands, and soon after he retired he bought a fine farm of good land with excellent improvements, well built and modeled houses and barns and with silo and all the appliances of modern farming, and on that country estate finds a profitable pleasure in farming and stock raising. He raises all the general crops and feeds everything to stock on the place with the exception of his wheat. He keeps only first class stock and has about a dozen first class horses, and all the machinery is of the very best type.
Mr. Borrey is a Republican in politics, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife belongs to the Congre- gational church. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Borrey were born the following children: Bertha, who was born in Ravenna, Ohio, July 3, 1871, and is the wife of Paul Hagen, whose home is Indianapolis. They are the parents of two children, Marie and Lucile. William, the second child, was born September 27, 1872, is a glass manufacturer at Kokomo, Indiana, and is unmarried. Flora. was born January 11, 1875, and is the wife of Edward Welsch, a hardware merchant at Fairmount. They have no children. John G. was born November 4, 1876, is a farmer and manager of his father's estate, being unmarried and living at home in Fairmount.
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JOSEPH RATLIFF. Among the old and honored residents of Fair- mount, one who has been a witness to and a participant in the won- derful development which has changed this part of Grant county from an undeveloped wilderness into one of the garden spots of the State, is Joseph Ratliff, who is now living retired from active pursuits, after many years spent in agricultural work. Mr. Ratliff is a grandson of Richard Ratliff, who was born in North Carolina, and whose parents, natives of England, emigrated to America at an early day and spent the remainder of their lives in farming, leaving a family of eight sons and four daughters.
Richard Ratliff grew up a farmer, and married a North Carolina girl whose name has since been forgotten. After the birth of several children, he left his native State in 1810, and came north across the mountains in teams, settling in a Quaker locality in Wayne county, near the present site of Richmond, although that city had not yet been established. There, in the wilderness, surrounded by pioneer hard- ships and privations, he made a home for his family, but later disposed of his interests and moved on to a new property near Hopewell, in Henry county, where the remainder of his life was passed in tilling the soil. Both he and his wife lived to advanced years and reared a large family of children.
Gabriel Ratliff, the father of Joseph Ratliff, was one of the older chil- dren in the family, and was born in North Carolina in 1805, being five years of age when he accompanied the family to Wayne county, Indiana. He was not yet of age when he came to Henry county, and he was there married to Catherine Pearson, also a native of the Old North State, where she was born in 1808. She had come with her parents to Wayne county in 1810 or 1811, by wagon, and located in the Quaker settlement near what is now Richmond. At that time one John Smith started a little store, and there they purchased their first goods and sold their eggs and produce, this being the only store for many miles around. The Pearson family accompanied the Ratliff family to the same neigh- borhood in Henry county. Mr. and Mrs. Ratliff settled on a property not far from Spiceland, and there Mr. Ratliff died in 1845, aged only forty years, during an epidemic of typhoid fever. Subsequently his widow and her children moved to Miami county, Indiana, locating on land then situated in the Indian Reserve, where many of the Indians still remained. There Mrs. Ratliff was married to a Mr. Atkinson, who died in 1871, and Mrs. Atkinson then came to Grant county, where she passed away at the age of seventy-five years, at the home of a son. She was a Quaker until late in life, when she adopted the faith of the Wes- leyan Methodist church. By her last union she had no issue.
A brother of Gabriel Ratliff, Nathan Ratliff, was one of the most famous hunters and trappers in Indiana, and many tales are told as to his prowess with the rifle. As related, on one occasion, when invad- ing a bear's den after a litter of cubs, he was surprised by the return of the mother bear, which he killed only after a desperate struggle. He spent his entire life in the woods of Henry and Blackford counties, and died in the latter when about eighty years of age, leaving a widow and family.
Joseph Ratliff was the fifth son and ninth child in his parents' family of twelve children, and was born in Henry county, Indiana, in 1838. He was nine years of age when he accompanied his mother to Miami county, and there he received his education, attending school a part of the time until he was fifteen years of age. At that time there were no roads, and in their travels to church and to the homes of their friends the early settlers had to depend upon blazed trails. He grew up an
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industrious, thrifty farmer, and this has been his occupation throughout life. An interesting conversationalist, he speaks entertainingly of the early days, of "log rolling" and "house raising," of coon hunting and of running through the woods after the cows, and of going a dozen miles through the woods to church and to market.
Mr. Ratliff was married first in Miami county, Indiana, to Mary A. Lamb, who was born a Quakeress, in the Quaker settlement near Moonsville, Madison county, Indiana. She died in 1881, leaving seven children. Prior to this, in 1871, Mr. Ratliff had come to Grant county and purchased a fine farm of ninety-two acres, just beyond the limits of Fairmount. He married in Miami county, for his second wife Mrs. Mary (Arnold) Thomas, who was born June 7, 1851, in Miami county, daugh- ter of Nathan and Sarah (Overman) Arnold, natives, respectively, of North Carolina and Wayne county, Indiana, although Mrs. Arnold was of North Carolina parentage. Both families were of old Fox Quaker stock, and came to Wayne county as early as 1800. Nathan Arnold and Sarah Overman were married in 1839, on August 21, near Richmond, and moved to Grant county, Indiana, in 1847, to a farm which the grandfather Arnold had entered from the government. It was all then a wilderness. Some years later Mr. Arnold traded his farm for one in Miami county, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, he passing away in 1868, at the age of fifty-five years, and his wife in 1894, when seventy-three years of age. Both were active Friends, Mrs. Arnold being overseer and elder of the church at Amboy at the time of her death, while Mr. Arnold was for many years an elder. He was a substantial and progressive farmer, and owned the first carriage in this section, in which he traveled in his preaching trips. By her first marriage with Mr. Simeon Thomas, who died at the age of twenty-five years, Mrs. Ratliff had two sons : Nathan H. and Herbert E., the former of whom lives on Mr. Ratliff's farm in Fairmount township, while the latter lives at Marion, Lamoure county, North Dakota, where he has large agricultural interests.
Of the children of his first marriage, Mr. Ratliff has three living. Charles, a farmer of Cass county, Michigan, is married and has a family of five children. Hon. Ancil, a successful farmer of Liberty township, Grant county, is an ex-member of the Indiana Legislature, and led the local option movement four years ago in Grant county. He has six children, all graduates of Fairmount Academy, while one daughter, Ina M., is a Friends missionary in Cuba. Milo E. Ratliff, D. D. S., with a large dental practice at Cassopolis, Michigan, is a graduate of Fair- mount Academy, Earlham College, Northwestern Dental College, Chi- cago, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. He mar- ried Belle Bogue, and they have twin daughters.
Mr. Ratliff's life has been a long and useful one, and his activities have served not alone to give him financial independence and prominence in Fairmount, but have also assisted materially in advancing the inter- ests of his adopted community. He has always been straightforward and honorable in his dealings, and everywhere he is held in the highest esteem by all who know him. He was trustee of Fairmount township for eleven years, elected on the Republican ticket.
JOHN H. SIMONS. Among the old families of Grant county that of Simons has had a prominent place from the time when this county was on the western frontier. Its members have prospered as farmers both in the times of early settlement and in later generations, have been good business men and public-spirited citizens and their lives have been led along the paths of quiet industry and prosperity through a period of
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three-quarters of a century. The representative of the name selected for special note in this article is John H. Simons, for many years identi- fied with business and civic affairs at Fairmount.
His grandfather, Adrial Simons, was born in the state of New York. He served as a soldier in the war of 1812. In his native state he mar- ried and then moved to Pennsylvania which remained his home until about 1820. He then went west until he reached Darke county, Ohio, and his death occurred there in 1876. There was a large family of ten children, all of whom grew up and two of them are still living: Mrs. Naomi Broderick, of Fort Wayne; and Sarah J. Wilt, on a farm near Warren, Indiana.
Henry Simons, the father, was born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, May 15, 1815. He was a small boy when the family moved out to Darke county, Ohio, and in that pioneer locality he grew up. In 1837 he set out from Darke county, walked all the way through woods and over the old time trails, to Grant county, where he entered eighty acres of land in section thirty-six of Fairmount township. Then he walked to the land office at Fort Wayne, seventy-five miles distant, entered the land and paid the fees, after which he retraced his steps to Grant county and cleared off the woods from a few acres of the land. These preliminaries having been accomplished he went on to his old home in Ohio, where he married Phoebe, a daughter of Solomon Thomas. In 1839 or 1840 he brought his young wife to Grant county, and located on the eighty acres which he entered a couple of years before. There he lived and his death occurred in 1902 on the thirty-first of March when at an advanced age.
Henry Simons attained the distinction of a long and well spent life. In his community and in his family he was noted for his uprightness and high qualities of mind and heart, and may be said to have fulfilled all the obligations of righteous living. He was a member of the Chris- tian church and in politics a Republican. His first wife died in the early fifties, leaving five children. Two of them, William and Adrial, are living and have families of their own. For his second marriage Henry Simons, in 1853, took Mrs. Elizabeth Parrill, nee Walker. She was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, in 1826. When she was thir- teen years of age she came with her father to Grant county. Here she was married to James Parrill, and left one son, Joseph, who is now in the automobile business in Fairmount. She died on March 19, 1899, leaving the following children by Mr. Simons: John H .; Levi, a farmer in Jef- ferson township, and the father of three children; Wilson, who lives on a farm in Jefferson township, is married, and his seven children are at home; Mata, wife of Oliver Buller, who resides in Fairmount and has one son and one daughter.
John H. Simons was born on the old homestead in Fairmount town- ship, November 17, 1854. His youth was spent on a farm, and he was given better than ordinary educational advantages. From the country schools he attended the Marion city schools, and afterwards was a student at the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. He began his career as a teacher, and later entered the lumber and saw mill industry. His partner for some seven years was William H. Lindsay, until he finally sold out to Mr. Lindsay. All his life he has been skilled in the mechanical arts, and has done much work as a carpenter and builder. Mr. Simons was one of the organizers of the Citizens Telephone Com- pany at Fairmount, served as its president seven years, and as secretary and treasurer during 1911 and 1912. He is now a stockholder in this successful enterprise. His business career has been one of success, and all his accomplishments have been worthy and of benefit not only to him- self but to the community.
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Mr. Simons served two terms in the city council at Fairmount. In politics he is a Republican, and at the present time he is holding the office of township assessor. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias Lodge in Fairmount.
In 1891 Mr. Simons married E. Ruth Stalker, who was born in Ran- dolph county, North Carolina, August 11, 1863, a daughter of Thomas and Sara J. (Elliott) Stalker. Her father was a member of the Quaker sect, and her mother a Methodist. Her parents were married in Ran- dolph county, North Carolina, August 4, 1847, and her father died there after a career as a farmer, on November 2, 1864. His widow was left in very poor circumstances, and with seven children in her care. In 1865 she brought her family out to Indiana and went through many hard- ships in her endeavor to keep her flock together until they were grown. One of her children died at the age of fourteen. A son, Jabez L. Stalker, is now living in Marion county, Oregon, and has one son who is also living. Another of the Stalker family is Paulina, widow of Harrison Wiand of Marion, and she has seven children still living. Mr. and Mrs. Simons are the parents of one son, Harry L., born June 2, 1892, a grad- uate of the city high school, and still at home.
ADRIAL SIMONS. Since his birth nearly three score and ten years ago, Adrial Simons has lived in Grant county, has met and accepted the hazard of chance and circumstance, has steadily strengthened a reputa- tion for integrity and unimpeachable conduct, and along with a fair degree of well won prosperity has acquired those inestimable riches of character and honor.
This is an old New England family, and great grandfather Adrial Simons was born in one of the New England states, served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, was married and later moved to Bradford county, Pennsylvania, where he reared a family of sixteen children. His wife's maiden name was Bingham. They both attained to good old age, and died in Pennsylvania. Adrial Simons, the grandfather, was born either in New England or Pennsylvania about 1793, and was brought up on a farm in Pennsylvania and was there married. His first child, Henry Simons, father of Adrial Simons of Grant county, was born May 15, 1815, and four years later, in 1819, the little family came out to Ohio and settled in Darke county. In Darke county, Adrial Simons and wife spent most of their years, and his wife passed away about 1855. They had estab- lished themselves in the wilderness, and eventually acquired a good farm, and made a comfortable home for themselves and children. Some years after the death of his wife, Adrial Simons moved out to Indiana, and died at the home of a son, Henry Simons, in Jefferson township, in 1875.
Henry Simons, who was the oldest of the family, had brothers and sisters who grew up as follows: Eliza, who died after her marriage, and after she had reared a family; William, died in Warren, Indiana, in 1912. when past ninety-two years of age-he lived with his wife for more than sixty years, and had a large family of children; Anna, married, died without children ; Adrial, third of the name, who married and reared a family and died in Huntington, Indiana; Erastus, who had a family and who died on a farm in Grant county ; Sophronia, the wife of William Helms, and both died in Huntington county, Indiana, having a family of children; Naomi, who married a Mr. Broderick, who died in Darke county and she died in Huntington, Indiana, in October, 1913; Maurice, who died in Huntington county, Indiana, was a farmer, miller and railroad man, and left a family ; Sarah J., the wife of Martin Wilts. lives near Warren, Indiana, and has several children.
Henry Simons was reared in Darke county, Ohio, and in that vicinity
MRS. ADRIAL SIMONS
ADRIAL SIMONS
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married Phoebe Thomas, a neighbor girl, a daughter of John and Agnes (McClure) Thomas, who were natives of Virginia, but spent most of their lives near New Madison on the Whitewater river. Soon after their marriage and before the birth of any children, Henry Simons and wife moved out to Indiana, and in 1840 located on government land in section thirty-six of Fairmount township. Their location comprised eighty acres, and had been selected by Henry Simons, according to a usual custom of that time, some months previous to the settlement of his family. Probably when he first selected the land he made a little clearing and erected a log cabin home. Anyhow such a house was the first shelter of the Simons family in Grant county, and he and his young wife began housekeeping there and set ont with courage and determination to make a home for themselves in the wilderness. The wife of Henry Simons died in February, 1852, being then only thirty-two years of age. She left five children. Henry Simons then married for his second wife, Mrs. Eliza- beth Parrell, whose maiden name was Walker, and who was the widow of James Parrell. She had one child by her previous marriage, Joseph W. Parrell, who lived in Fairmount township. Elizabeth Simons died leaving four children, all of whom are now married and have families of their own, their names being John H., Levi P., David W., and Mata M. Henry Simons survived both wives and died at the old homestead March 30, 1902. By his first marriage, there were children as follows: An infant that died unnamed; William, who is now a resident of Fairmount town- ship, a retired farmer, and who has one son and two daughters; Adrial, mentioned below; Jonathan, who died of scarlet fever in the winter fol- lowing his mother's death, and that same plague carried off other chil- dren named Martha Ann and Ransom E.
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