USA > Indiana > Blackford County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 9
USA > Indiana > Grant County > Blackford and Grant Counties : Indiana a chronicle of their past and present with family lineage and personal memoirs > Part 9
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In four successive generations there has been an Adrial Simons, and Mr. Simons of Jefferson township continues the custom from his great- grandfather, his grandfather, and his uncle. Adrial Simons was born on the old Fairmount township homestead March 28, 1845, was educated in that vicinity and his home was with his parents until he was twenty- one years of age. He secured his first small store of capital by working at wages for neighboring farmers, and at the time of his marriage started out on his own account, with only a small amount of land, with very little stock and supplies, and all his property has been won through the thrift and good management of himself and wife. Mr. Simons now pos- sesses a fine farm estate of one hundred and sixty acres, and all but three acres of this might be considered under the highest state of improvement. A large red barn and a fine ten-room house are conspicuous features of the Simons estate and the farm is well stocked and with abundance of water, and its crops measure up to the best standards of Grant county agriculture. Mr. Simons has an excellent local reputation as a breeder of high-grade shorthorn cattle and Poland-China hogs.
In July, 1874, Mr. Simons was married in Jefferson township to Miss Elizabeth M. Needler, who was born in Jefferson township February 14, 1844, was educated in this locality, and her parents were James and Rebecca Needler, early settlers who located in Jefferson township during the thirties. Her mother was an active member of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, while Mr. Needler was associated with no church organiza- tion. Mr. and Mrs. Simons have the following children: Ora Bell, who died in infancy ; Roscoe E., who died at the age of twenty-five unmarried ; Carl C., who died unmarried at the age of twenty-two and who was just at the entrance to a most promising manhood; Malevie M., who was educated in the common schools and lives at home with her parents. Mr. Simons is a Republican but has never shown any desire for public office, although public spirited in all his relations with community affairs.
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JOHN R. LITTLE. For sixty years the Little family have lived and borne worthy parts in the activities of Grant county. The present active generation of the name have been farmers, chiefly, but its members have also done well in business and industry. The part chosen by John R. Little has been education. He was educated in the normal depart- ment of Fairmount Academy, and for thirteen years did a most successful work as a teacher in Fairmount township. In November, 1908, the people of the township recognizing his superior qualifications, elected him township trustee, and he has been kept in office ever since. The schools of the township were never better administered. He is a force- ful, public spirited citizen, and one of the most popular men in the county.
John R. Little was born in Fairmount township, July 31, 1871. His family record is an interesting and honorable one. His great-grand- father, John Little, Sr., was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, of North Carolina parentage. Owing to certain misfortunes he got in debt, and according to the laws then prevailing in that state he was sub- ject to arrest and imprisonment. Refusing to accept the burdensome and unjust conditions, he left the state and was never heard of again. His widow, whose maiden name was Mary Nicholson, was thus left with four sons, David, Nathan, Zimri, and John Jr. These children were bound out according to the methods then in vogue. David was brought to Indiana in a very early day by Aaron Hill, and lived and died in Wayne county, where he secured land, improved it, and made a com- fortable little fortune. He was three times married and reared a large family. He was eighty years of age at the time of his death. The son, Zimri, died in North Carolina, where he reared a family. Nathan and John, the latter the grandfather of Mr. John R. Little, in 1852 brought their families to Indiana, locating in Randolph county, where they started life anew. Nathan was trained at the trade of tanner, and followed that business in Randolph county for a number of years. In 1853 both Nathan and John moved to Fairmount in Grant county, and here Nathan continued tanning for many years. His death occurred when he was an old man in Grant county. He was first married in North Carolina to Nancy, a daughter of Asa Rush. She died in Fair- mount, leaving a family of children. His second marriage was to Mrs. Rachael Foust, whose maiden name was Modlin. Rachael Modlin had married for her first husband John Little, Jr., a brother of Nathan and grandfather of the present Fairmount township trustee. John Little, Jr., died in 1853, and she later married James Foust, who also died. Then she became the wife of Nathan Little and introduced several peculiar relationships in the family records. By her marriage to James Foust, there was one child. Nathan Little had no children by her. She died several years before her last husband.
John Little, Jr., who has already been mentioned, was born in North Carolina about 1810. After his father was forced to leave the state on account of debt, the boy was bound out to a farmer named Zachariah Nixon, and when he was twenty-one years of age he was free to pursue his own devices. His mother died about that time, and he established a home of his own by marriage to Rachael Modlin, whose history has already been alluded to. To the marriage of John and Rachael were born five children in North Carolina. These children were: Alexandria, Thomas, Sarah J., Noel, and Mary Emily. All then came north to Randolph county, Indiana, in 1852, and in the following year located in Grant county, their home being near Fairmount City, where the father died November 17, 1853, when in the prime of life. The widow, as already stated, then married James Foust, and had one child, David
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Foust, who died young. Of the five children of John Little, Jr., the only survivor is Alexander, who was born in 1839, and was about four- teen years old when his people came to Grant county. He enlisted in Company H of the Twelfth Indiana Volunteers in 1861 and after the expiration of eight months of service reenlisted for the period of three years or during the war. His second enlistment was in Company B of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry. He saw a long and arduous career as a soldier, and was discharged at Austin, Texas, in February, 1866. He was in many campaigns and engagements, but went through all escap- ing wounds or capture. He now lives retired at Fairmount, one of the honored old veterans of the war, and a kindly and esteemed citizen of the county. He is a Progressive in politics and has membership in the Beeson Post No. 386, G. A. R. Alexander Little married Mary T. Johnson of Fairmount, and of their six children four are living, all of whom are married and have children of their own. The second child of John Little, Jr., was Thomas, father of John R. Little, concerning whom more is said in a following paragraph. Jane, the third in order of birth, married Jesse W. Crisco, both now deceased, and of their three children one is living. Joel M. married Serepta McCormick, both now deceased, and they left a family of six children. Emily married Oliver McCor- mack, a farmer, and she is now deceased, while her husband married the second time, the second wife also being deceased, and he lives in Grant county.
Thomas Little, father of John R., was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, December 9, 1842, and came with his parents to Ran- dolph county, Indiana, in 1852. This journey was made with a one- horse team, in company with a large party of people making the migra- tion through the west. In 1853 the family moved to Grant county, where he grew to manhood, and at the age of twenty years, in 1862, he enlisted for service in the Civil war as a member of the Eighty-Fourth Indiana Regiment. Later, on account of sickness, he received an honor- able discharge and was sent home to die, but instead got well, and before the war was over enlisted in the Seventh Indiana Cavalry. He remained with that command until the war was over. At Guntown, Mississippi, he received a wound from a bullet through the ankle, and suffered from the effects of that injury all his life. He died at his home in Fairmount, July 29, 1905. He always stood high in the community, was a man of industry and excellent business judgment and had friends wherever he had acquaintances. He belonged to Beeson Post No. 386, G. A. R., was affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at Jonesboro, was a Republican in politics, and belonged to the Friends church.
Thomas Little was married in Fairmount township to Susanna Foust, who was born in Randolph county, Indiana, October 5, 1848. She came to Grant county when a girl with her parents and grew up and spent the rest of her days in this locality, her death occurring in August, 1909. Her father was James Foust, already mentioned in this family record as having married the widow of John Little, Jr. Mrs. Thomas Little was a member of the Quaker church. She had the following children: Wintford, deceased; Florence, deceased; Luther, deceased; John R .; Rosanna, who died in childhood; Albert, who is married, lives in Danville, and has a family; Marilla, who died young; Charles, who is a glass blower, has a family and resides at Montreal, Canada; Leonard, a farmer near Jonesboro, Indiana, married and has a family ; Frank, a glass blower living in Fairmount with his family; Annie, who died in childhood; Grace, who lives with her brother, John R .; Robert, who is married and lives in Pulaski county, Indiana, where he owns a farm and is the father of one child.
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Mr. John R. Little who inherited the substantial family characteristic of honest purpose and industrious habits was reared in Fairmount town- ship, and was graduated from the normal department of the Fairmount Academy in 1892. With education as his chosen calling, he qualified as a teacher, and did a successful part in instructing the young in his home township. Since his election to the office of trustee, he has given practically all his time to the administration of the township school system. In the township are several good school houses, built of brick, and most of them are constructed of a modern type. He has under him nine teachers, and through his office has the entire responsibility of hir- ing, placing and paying the teaching staff of the township. The annual fund provided for this purpose by taxation and from other sources in the township amounts to forty-five hundred dollars. In politics Mr. Little is a stanch Republican.
In Fairmount, on May 2, 1900, Mr. Little married Effie Davis, who died in 1906. She was born June 17, 1879. At her death she left a daughter, Mary, who was born August 20, 1901, and is now a student in the public schools. Mr. Little for his second wife was married on March 4, 1913, to Mrs. Ella Moon, whose maiden name was Lamb. She was born in Howard county, Indiana, in 1873, was reared and educated there and was a daughter of William and Artie Lamb. Her father died in 1913, while her mother still lives at Greentown, in Howard county. The Lamb family were Quakers in religion, and Mrs. Little was one of four children. By her marriage to Eslie Moon, now deceased, Mrs. Little had two children, Leo and Emerson, both now nearly grown. Mr. and Mrs. Little belong to the Friends church and are popular members of the social community at Fairmount.
WILLIAM W. WARE. One of the most enterprising merchants it has ever been the good fortune of Fairmount to claim as a citizen is William W. Ware, head of a large establishment dealing principally in buggies, harness and heavy farm machinery, and for forty years a resident of Grant county. In addition to his keen business ability, Mr. Ware is one of the kind of business men who believe that the best method of doing business is to give value for value. He has therefore won the trust and friendship of every one with whom he has come in contact, and he per- forms a useful part of community service in addition to his business activities.
William W. Ware was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, June 15, 1867. His parents were Joseph B. and Naomi (Mendenhall) Ware. His mother was born in Guilford county, a daughter of Mordecai and Lydia (Pugh) Mendenhall, both natives of North Carolina, Quakers in in religion and farming people, spending all their lives in their native state. Joseph B. Ware was born in Granville county, of North Caro- lina, a son of Henry and Sallie (Hicks) Ware, natives respectively of Virginia and Granville county, North Carolina. They were married in North Carolina and lived to a good old age. Henry Ware was a member of the Episcopal faith, while his wife was a Presbyterian.
Joseph B. Ware and wife were married in Guilford county, North Carolina, and lived there until 1867, during which time their first child William W. was born. The family then moved to the north locating first at Hendricks county, Indiana, near Amo. There the father pur- sued his trade as a plasterer and mechanic for several years. Within that time was born the only other child, Ada. In 1873 the family moved to Grant county, locating two miles southwest of the city of Fairmount. There the father continued to follow his trade as a plasterer contractor, and did work over a large territory for fifteen years. Finally he de-
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voted all his energies to farming, and is still a resident of the farm and interested in its active management. He is seventy-six years of age, and for the past fifty years never had a day of sickness until the summer of 1912, and is still smart and active. His wife, now seventy-two years of age, is somewhat enfeebled from the weight of years. They are botlı active members of the Friends church, and the father is a Prohibitionist in politics. Besides William, their only child is Ada, wife of Rev. Oscar H. Trader, a minister in the Friends church and a resident of Fair- mount. Mr. and Mrs. Trader have two children, Cleo, a graduate of the Fairmount Academy, and the wife of Clarence Riggs of Logansport, and Retta, a graduate of the Fairmount Academy and living at home.
William W. Ware was nine years of age when the family moved to Grant county, and he grew to manhood here, and in 1888 was graduated from the Fairmount Academy. His early career was devoted to teach- ing, and he has a record of fifteen years of service in the school room. During all that time he lost only one day through illness. For three years he was principal of the Fowlerton schools in this county, and has the distinction of having organized the consolidated schools in that vicinity. While still following the profession of teaching he became interested in mercantile affairs, and joined Mordecai M. Nixon in the farm implement and machinery business for five years. He was then with O. M. Trader, and in 1899 they established the Fairmount Buggy Com- pany, a concern which was conducted by them for ten years. Mr. Ware then took over the business and conducted it independently two years. At the end of that time he became associated with M. A. Hiatt in the harness and buggy trade, and theirs is now the largest establishment of its kind in southern Grant county. They carry a splendid stock of both high priced and medium priced goods, valued at five thousand dollars. They occupy a good store building on north Maine Street, one hundred by twenty-five feet, and also two warehouses for the storage of buggies and harvesting machinery.
In Fairmount township in September, 1895, Mr. Ware married Nettie Dare, who was born in Union county, Indiana, August 1, 1868. She was reared in Knox county, Missouri, to which locality her family moved in 1876. In 1893 they returned to Indiana, and located in Grant county, where she has since lived. Her parents are Robert and Mary (McQuoid) Dare. Her mother died in Grant county at the age of fifty-eight, in August, 1911. Her father is now seventy-three years of age, and has his home in Fairmount city. During the Civil war he was a soldier in an Indiana regiment, and went through the war without wound or capture. Mr. and Mrs. Ware have no children. In politics he is a Prohibitionist and he and his wife take a very prominent part in the Little Ridge Friends church. Mr. Ware is teacher of the Ware Adult Bible Class, one of the largest rural bible classes in the county, with a membership of fifty. Mr. Ware owns a nice country home, a mile and three quarters from Fairmount and has already accumulated a generous competence for his later years. For nine years he gave his services in behalf of local education as a member of the board of trustees of the Fairmount Academy.
WILLIAM H. LINDSEY. Born in Grant county, Mr. Lindsey learned a good mechanical trade, spent many years in building and contracting, and later invested the proceeds of a well spent career in farm lands, being now one of the largest landholders in his part of the county. He lives retired at Fairmount, but has not yet felt the necessity of relaxation on account of age, and enjoys the vigor of life to its full. His family has been represented in Grant county nearly seventy years, and the name has always been associated with substantial worth and integrity.
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The family of Lindseys were originally from the north of Ireland and of what is known as Scotch-Irish stock. Between one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and fifty years ago they crossed the Atlantic and located in Guilford county, North Carolina. There the first genera- tions lived and died and were as a rule farmers and mechanics. The history of those early generations is largely lost to record and it is only known definitely that the grandparents of William H. Lindsey lived and died in North Carolina.
Daniel T. Lindsey, father of William H., was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, February 6, 1815, being one in a family of three chil- dren and the only one who came north. His early years were spent on the old Guilford county farm, and when he was about eighteen he bound himself out for his board to serve three years in learning the cabinet maker's trade. After three years of apprenticeship he continued to work for some time for his old employer as a journeyman. At the age of thirty when still unmarried, he left North Carolina, and moved to Indiana. settling in Delaware county. There he met and married Nancy E., a daughter of Hiram and Martha (Leach) Lee. Both her parents were born in Virginia, were married there and then moved to Franklin county, Indiana, where their daughter Nancy was born May 14, 1827. When she was nine years of age, the family in 1836 moved to Delaware county, and there her parents took up anew the burdens of pioneer existence and the responsibility of making a new home in the wilderness. Her father hewed a farm out of the woods, and there he and his wife died, the latter when in middle life, while her father was twice married, after the death of his first companion. He died in the fall of 1876, when about fourscore years of age. There were two sons and one daughter by the second wife, and one son by the last marriage. Daniel T. Lindsey was a skilled workman, and followed his trade as a cabinet maker for a few years after his marriage. He then took up carpentry and build- ing, and still later did some farming. After his marriage he lived in Henry county, Indiana, until 1846, in which year he settled in Fair- mount township, and ten or eleven years later moved to Franklin town- ship, this county, where his death occurred January 27, 1899. His widow survived him and died at the home of her daughter Mrs. George Berry in Marion, May 3, 1910. She belonged to the old-school Baptist faith which the father also believed, and this denomination had been the church of their parents before them. Daniel T. Lindsey was a Demo- crat in politics. Daniel T. Lindsey and wife had twelve children: There were five sons and seven daughters, and of these nine grew to maturity, and all were married. Four sons and four daughters are now living.
William H. Lindsey was born in Fairmount township, November 26, 1852. In 1857, when he was five years old the family moved to Franklin township, and it was there that he spent his boyhood days and was reared and educated. The school he attended was the old Baptist school house, two miles west of Roseburg. Later he turned his attention to the practical things of life, learned carpenter work under his father, and made that trade the basis of a successful business career. February, 1872, he moved to the city of Fairmount, where his skill as a builder and reliability as a contractor brought him a large patronage. He built a great many homes in Fairmount, and dwelling houses and barns throughout the country in that vicinity. In 1887 he abandoned his trade, and in the spring of the following year established at Fairmount a saw and plane- ing mill and lumber yard. This was a prosperous business establish- ment, and was continued by him until 1901 when he sold out. He then bought six hundred and twelve and a half acres of land in Liberty town- ship. His possessions in that township comprise some of the finest
MR. AND MRS. SANTFORD LITTLE AND DAUGHTER
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farm lands in the county and all of it is in an excellent state of cultiva- tion and improvement. He has six sets of farm buildings on the land, and all the tenants are well provided for and are a prosperous and substantial little colony of farmers. Mr. Lindsey himself lived on the farm three years, but then returned to his city home. He owns a beauti- ful residence at 304 E. Washington Street in Fairmount. As a farmer he has made an exceptional success in the raising of corn, wheat, oats, hay and clover, and has made a practice of feeding nearly all his crops on his own land. In Jefferson township of Grant county, on March 8, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of William H. Lindsey to Miss Sarah D. Couch. Mrs. Lindsey was born in Grant county on the old Jefferson township homestead of her parents September 16, 1855. Her home has heen in this county all her life, she was reared and educated here, and her family name has long been honorably identified with this section of the state. Her parents were Samuel and Nancy (Furnish) Couch, natives respect- ively of Indiana and Ohio. They were married in Jefferson township, Grant county, and began their married life in this county. Her father died at the age of sixty-two and her mother passed away on Christmas Day of 1901 at the age of seventy. The Couches were of the old-school Baptist Faith. They were the parents of seven children, all of whom married, and all had children except one, who died soon after marriage.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey are noted as follows: 1. Vella was born November 28, 1877, and is the wife of J. Otto Fink, assistant superintendent of the Premier Auto Company of Indianapolis ; their three children are William, and Vella, both in the city high school, and Mary E., aged fourteen. 2. Evva, born March 15, 1881, was edu- cated in the Fairmount high school, and is now the wife of Charles H. Hubbard, a glass manufacturer at San Springs, Oklahoma. Their children are Margaret E., aged ten, and Catherine, aged six. 3. Burr died at the age of three years. 4. Guy died when aged ten months and eleven days. 5. John C. born November 16, 1895, is now a member of the Fairmount High School Class of 1915. The church attendance of the family is at the Congregational, and Mr. Lindsey is a Democratic voter. Fraternally he has taken both the lodge and chapter degrees in Masonry at Fairmount, and is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Hackelman.
SANTFORD LITTLE. Not only through his enterprise as a successful farmer has Mr. Little contributed to the permanent prosperity of Grant county, but has exercised his inventive ability in the perfection of devices for the lightening of human labors on farms throughout many states, and as he is still young his activities in this direction may be considered only to have fairly begun, and his career will have many successful accomplishments to record during the subsequent years. Mr. Little on his mother's side is descended from the McCormick family, so prominent since pioneer days in this section of Indiana, and related to the McCor- mick family which produced the inventors and manufacturers of the early reapers, and first successful harvesting machines. Perhaps from this side of the house Mr. Little has inherited his inventive turn of mind. His adjustable device for a spring seat is one of his improvements, and the upright stay for hay racks has been patented and has been sold over a wide territory, and is one of the best things on the market for hay wagons. Mr. Little has also perfected a unique machine for picking up hogs and turning them over in order to operate on them for vaccination and altering, and this invention finds much favor among veterinary sur- geons. Another farm implement bearing the name of Mr. Little as pat- entee is his hog ringing machine, which operates with great rapidity and causes less pain than the old and slower process.
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