Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 106

Author: Rolland Lewis Whitson
Publication date: 1914
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1034

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His marriage on March 30, 1897, united him with Liza Day, a daughter of Aquilla and Rachel (Reybolt) Day. Mrs. Todd was born in Green township of Grant county, and grew up and was educated in this vicinity. After their marriage they lived with his father, but after eleven months moved to their present place in Liberty township. The date of their establishment on their present farm was February 24, 1898. To their marriage four children have been born as follows: Rachel I., born June 6, 1898; Ora L., born November 30, 1900; John P., born July 9, 1903; Bertha C., born December 18, 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Todd have taken pains to give their children the best of home training and school advantages, and all but the youngest are still attending the 1

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public schools. The family are members of the Radley Friends Church, and Mr. Todd is a member of the Swayzee Detective Association. In politics he is a Democrat, and in 1906 served as road supervisor of his district.

GAMALIEL BAILEY GOODYKOONTZ. When Abram Goodykoontz, who was among the highly honored pioneers of Liberty, named his sec- ond son Gamaliel Bailey, it was in honor of the editor of the National Era, published in Washington, and in the columns of which "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was printed as a serial. The friends of Mr. Goodykoontz call him "Gay," and he is a genial gentleman reflecting the name char- acteristic. Abram Goodykoontz was a man much in advance of his day and generation in his conception of questions of state, about which the public mind centered, and he was always an independent thinker. · Abram Goodykoontz was three times married. The mother of his older children was Margaret Phillips, who died when her children were small, leaving with them the precious memory of an ideal mother. Abram Goodykoontz was born in Grayson county, Virginia, and when a small boy, his father's family moved to Madison county, Indiana. He located in Monroe township, Grant county, after his marriage. Sev- eral years later he moved to Liberty township where he cleared and improved the homestead now known as Heimat, which is still in the family possessions, and it has always been one of the best cultivated farms in the county.

When Abram Goodykoontz was a young man he attended Frank- lin College, being in school with John Ratliff. Together they worked to pay their college expenses, chopping wood at from twelve and one- half to forty cents a cord. All through life there was evidence of cul- ture in this man,-the most genial of all companions because he had read everything and was familiar with all the questions of the day. He was one of the pioneer teachers. He first taught in Madison county, then in Monroe township, Grant county, and later in Liberty township.

While he may not have been the first by whom the new was tried nor yet the last to lay the old aside, Abram Goodykoontz always investi- gated for himself, was always a student, and the question of health was early reduced to a science by him. He was temperate and regular in all of his habits, would not eat a meal after the usual evening hour, and when he died it was without sickness, had simply lived out his allotted day, and the whole community realized that it had lost an excellent citizen. All regarded him as a gentleman of culture, and an economist, whom it is well to emulate in many things. His orchard, garden and fields all spoke of the careful husbandman and this tribute written by one who knew him is not a studied compliment, but the proof about Abram Goodykoontz. He had the logic that an apple a day kept the doctor away, and his orchard produced an abundance of that fruit.

Mr. Gay Goodykoontz first married Miss Sarah Booram who only lived a few years. On March 25, 1889, he married Miss Nora J. Mart, who is historian of Liberty township in this Centennial history. She is a daughter of Joseph J. and Mary (Clark) Mart, who came to Lib- erty township from Clinton county, Ohio. They were members of the Wesleyan Methodist church. Samuel and Andrew Mart were brothers of J. J. Mart, and all were men who left their mark in the community. There were three Mart farms, and the parents of Mrs. Goodykoontz were among the successful prosperous farmers in the community. When she was only a baby in her mother's arms, they located at the Joseph J. Mart homestead in the spring of 1864, still owned in the family, and they were the first white family to live there. Only one field had been cleared and only one crop raised before they came into possession of it.

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While Mr. Goodykoontz was named for the editor of the National Era, Mrs. Goodykoontz was named after a book "Nora Wilmot," which her parents had read and enjoyed. Although she has never been able to procure a copy of this book to read herself as it was long ago out of print, she was often told the story and it must have influenced the life of the child, as it was a temperance story, and Mrs. Goodykoontz has long been an active worker in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, her membership being in the Oak Ridge Union. She is a fre- quent contributor to farm papers, always writing about home problems, although not signing her contributions. She is the letter writer in both the Goodykoontz and Mart families, absentees always knowing she will favor them with newspaper clippings of interest, and detail all the news of the community. As historian of Liberty, Mrs. Goody- koontz reached many absent friends when the chapter was published in a Marion newspaper.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Goodykoontz attended Marion Normal School and taught in the common schools of the county. Mrs. Goodykoontz also attended Lebanon, Ohio, National University. A country home contains for them highest possibilities of usefulness and happiness, and they have named their home "Good Cheer." It is near the family homestead of each, and includes the old camp-meeting grounds of the colored people. They were moving spirits in the organization of the Bethel Farmers' Club. They affiliate with Bethel Friends Church and she has charge of a class in Sunday school there. Mr. Goodykoontz was a member of the Grange and the F. M. B. A. when those organi- zations flourished in the community. He has been a member of the I. O. O. F. lodge at Jonesboro for twenty-two years. Mrs. Goody- koontz was a charter member of the Grant County Historical Society, and with books and magazines at hand she and her husband are quite content to keep "the noiseless tenor of their way." While Mr. and Mrs. Goodykoontz have no children, their home has been a haven for some relative or orphan the greater part of their married life. They hope that "Good Cheer" may mean to their guests something of what the name implies.

JOHN PUTNAM CAMPBELL. As one of the men whose advice and assistance have been furnished the editors and publishers of the his- tory of Grant county, the publishers take pleasure in presenting the following brief record of John Putnam Campbell, who is a citizen so well known throughout Grant county that any introduction might seem superfluous.

When he was only two years old John P. Campbell came with his parents from Ohio to Indiana in 1838, and to Grant county in 1847, and for more than sixty-five years he has resided continuously in the same locality. There is a Revolutionary soldier buried in Maple Grove cemetery, James Campbell who fought for seven years in the effort to establish American independence. He came to Grant county in 1847 with the family of his son John P. Campbell, Sr. Because of his association with and admiration of Israel Putnam of Revolutionary fame, both the son and grandson of James Campbell have had the in- itial "P," although neither used the word Putnam written in full. James Campbell, the Revolutionary veteran, died within a year after becoming a resident of Grant county. Every Decoration Day his grave is visited and decorated by his grandson who performs a similar office in two other cemeteries, namely : Prickett and Marion Odd Fellows cem- eteries. James Campbell lived in Pennsylvania before removing with his son to Indiana. He is one of the three Revolutionary soldiers whose graves are known in Grant county.

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John P. Campbell, Sr., on reaching Grant county entered the land along Pipe Creek, and he and his wife lie buried by the side of the Revo- lutionary ancestor, not far from the original family homestead. While he was too old for service in the Civil war, having been born September 3, 1797, and dying in Grant county January 29, 1892, John P. Campbell, Sr., furnished two sons to the service,-his namesake and Crayton Campbell. At the present time John P. Campbell, Jr., is the last of his father's family, and represents the third generation of the Campbell family in Grant county, and there are two younger generations after him, who are now active on the state of action. John P. Campbell, Jr., married Miss Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, a daughter of Captain Isaac Hamilton, who came from Ohio to Indiana in 1855. Mr. Campbell and wife lived in the vicinity of Jalapa, where they were married Octo- ber 8, 1866, until the election of Mr. Campbell as treasurer of Grant county in 1876. They then moved to Marion which has since been their home. Both Mr. Campbell and wife were school teachers before and after their marriage and they taught in Pleasant and Richland town- ship. They have distinct knowledge of pioneer life in all its phases. A son and a daughter constitute their family. Otho B. Campbell, the son, married Miss Elma M. Ammons, and their son, John Otho Camp- bell, bears the name of both grandfather and his father. Otho B. Campbell lives in Marion, Campbell & Son being a business partnership well known in the city. Mrs. Gertrude Campbell Weaver, the daughter of Mr. Camp- bell and wife, is the wife of S. L. Weaver and lives in Uhrichsville, Ohio. Her children are Lawrence Campbell, Martha Elizabeth and Mildred Gertrude. Mr. Campbell has always been very fond of music, and both his children and grandchildren possess musical talents. Since the Weaver children have lived away from the music center in Marion where they received their training, they have contributed much to the musical activities of their new home, and when they return to Marion there is much music and good cheer around the family homestead. Mr. O. B. Campbell and Mrs. S. L. Weaver both had the best training avail- able and their children have the advantages of cultured homes and the facilities offered by the modern school. Mr. Campbell's war record was with the Thirty-fourth Indiana Regiment, and he was in the thick of the fighting with his comrades all through the Vicksburg campaign. When the memorial sermon is delivered each year he is with the General Shunk Post of the Grand Army at the services. For thirty-nine years the Campbell family residence in Marion was on West Fourth Street. From time to time changes were made in the place and it was looked upon as one of the best residence properties in Marion. Its location appealed to J. Wood Wilson, who desired to erect a mansion in Marion, and after he bought the building and grounds Mr. Campbell moved from Fourth to First Street, where two commodious residence properties were made of the one house. The Wilson mansion now graces the spot where the Campbell family associations for so many years centered. While Mr. and Mrs. Campbell belong to the pioneer civilization, they have ad- vanced with it and they are growing old together amid most comfortable surroundings.

Ross C. HARVEY. One of Grant county's most progressive farming citizens is Ross C. Harvey, whose home is four miles southwest of Marion, located on the Delphi and Hailey Prairie Gravel Road. Mr. Harvey started out as a renter, and with the aid and cooperation of his good wife has acquired more than the ordinary prosperity in material affairs, and has at the same time borne with public spirit his share of com- munity duties.

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Ross C. Harvey was born on a farm in Mill township, Grant county, December 7, 1865, a son of Sidney and Jane (Thomas) Harvey. There were three children in the family, namely: Ellsworth, Ross C., and Julia, the wife of Hubert Kline, ex-recorder of Grant county.

Ross C. Harvey was reared on the home farm in Franklin township, to which locality the family moved when he was a baby, and he had a district school education. During the summer seasons he worked for his father, attending school in the winter, and thus continued until he was twenty years of age. For some time he rented his father's farm, and has always followed the occupation of agriculture. On November 1, 1893, he was united in marriage with Rose Burrier, the youngest child of Samuel Burrier. After his marriage Mr. Harvey and wife rented the Burrier homestead, and lived there for some years, after which he established himself on his present place, the situation of which has already been described. As a farmer Mr. Harvey understands the principles and methods of first-class crop-production and keeps the fertility of his land by feeding his grain and other products to his live stock. He keeps high-grade cattle and hogs, and the annual volume of his production places him among the independent farmer citizens of the county. He is the owner of two hundred acres of valuable farm lands, all in Franklin township. Seventy acres are located in section twenty- two near Roseburg, and he has one hundred and thirty acres in the farm on which he lives, in sections fourteen and fifteen, his principle farm home being located in section fourteen.

Mr. Harvey has a birthright membership in the Quaker church, while his wife is a Wesleyan in religion. He affiliates with Grant Lodge, No. 103, Knights of Pythias, and in politics is a Republican. Mr. Har- vey has done much to maintain the reputation of Grant county for good roads. He is superintendent of the Delphi and Hailey Gravel Road, of the Fenstermaker Gravel Road, and of the road from Thirteenth Street to Roseburg Pike.

DANIEL EDGAR SPRONG. Although Spring Valley is in Wayne town- ship of Huntington county, the family living there is identified with Grant county, and Mr. and Mrs. D. E. Sprong planned to have the Cen- tennial History as soon as they knew about it. How closely they are identified with Grant county will be made clear in the following out- lines of facts concerning their family history and the economic activities to be found at Spring Valley.

Cornelius Sprong, father of Daniel E. came from Rush county to the vicinity of Independence, now Rigdon, in 1861. On July 30, 1846, he had married Elizabeth Snyder in Clermont county, Ohio, and they had lived one year in Rush county before they came to Grant county. These parents ended their days and found a resting place at Knox Chapel in the same neighborhood where they reared their families.

Daniel Edgar Sprong who was born while the family lived in Cler- mont county, Ohio, April 4, 1854, came as a child to Grant county, and after growing up located in Huntington county, where he is most comfortably situated and still keeps in touch with Grant county and its interests. Mr. Sprong had a common school education and was a teacher in Tipton county. On April 11, 1879, he married Martha Ann Behymer, of Indianapolis. Since that time they have worked together and accumulated a competency. Mrs. Sprong's father was Daniel Behymer, an architect and builder of Indianapolis, Indiana.

While the virgin forests still prevailed in Green township he located a sawmill there and that was the beginning of an acquaintance between Mr. and Mrs. Sprong that resulted in their marriage. Mrs. Sprong

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admitted that she liked him when she was only twelve and said to her mother that she would "set her cap" for him.

The family of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel E. Sprong are : Milton Sprong, who died in infancy; Oscar E., who married Nora Dooley, and had children Beulah and Lloyd; Sarah, who married Oliver B. Dooley, and her children are Ethel, Lula, and Waldo Cornelius, one of her children being named for his grandfather; Frank, by his marriage to Ica Hollett had children-Ada, Louise, Earl, and Frances and Faye, twins; Frances married Walter F. Bowman, and her children are Ruth, Virgil, Estil and Lillian; Mamie married Homer Garrison; Lawrence and Laura are twins at home; John and Marie are the youngest also at home. Thus there are nine living children and fourteen grandchildren in the family centering at Spring Valley, Wayne township, Hunting- ton county.

While Mr. and Mrs. Sprong reared a large family, they worked hard while doing it, living part of the time on land they owned and .part of the time on rented land until they accumulated money enough to buy their present home-Spring Valley, thirteen miles from Marion. Though the home is a long distance away, the Sprongs every Saturday deliver produce to Marion customers, and have supplied some of their patrons for many years. Spring Valley has been the Sprong residence since March 17, 1902. While they paid thirty-eight dollars and twenty- five cents ($38.25) an acre for the ground it would require one hun- dred dollars an acre advance to tempt them to sell it. It is a splendid dairy and stock farm, watered from springs, and the improvements they have added make it a desirable home.

The house has been remodeled and two barns and a silo have been . built. With an automobile distance to market has been annihilated, and the Sprongs are entirely satisfied with their investment at Spring Valley. Until Decoration Day in 1911 Mrs. Sprong always marketed her produce in a closed wagon built to order, but it took her all day to make the trip and deliver the products, and that year he chartered a livery automobile and took all the family to Knox Chapel cemetery. They enjoyed the outing so well, that he soon invested in a private touring car and now the produce is delivered before the morning is over and they are at home early in the afternoon. The revenue from the market produce reached one thousand dollars a year, and Mrs. Sprong figures that she has paid for the automobile and that she is entitled to its use on market days.

Mr. Sprong culls the dairy herd closely and only profitable animals remain on his feeding list. He has gasoline power for shelling and grinding oats and corn at home. The labor problem was solved when the children were born, and all learned the secret of earning bread. Now the youngest is in the Wayne township high school at Banquo. In time the parents will have to give up so much hard work or do like others depend upon hired labor, and then there will probably be less annual surplus.

Mr. Sprong always reads Marion newspapers and all his interests are in Grant county-save his home and family. He located in Hunt- ington too late in life to ever have the same interest there. He pays taxes in Huntington, but sells his farm products in Marion. The Spring Valley dairy products help to put Wayne township in the front line in supplying Marion consumers with the necessities of life, no Grant county township marketing more grain, hay, and dairy products than this neighboring township of Wayne, across the line in Huntington county. Mount Aetna near the home of the Sprongs at Spring Valley is called the commercial watershed between Marion and Huntington,

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and a commercial map of Marion would take in Spring valley and almost all of Wayne township.

WILLIAM H. STREIB. Some of the leading farmers of Grant county carry on operations on land which has been brought to a state of high development from swamp, prairie and timber land by members of their own family, and take a justifiable pride in the fact. The greater number of these men have spent their entire lives in the sections in which they now reside, and being thoroughly conversant with soil and climatic conditions are able to attain a full measure of success from their labors. In this class is found William H. Streib, the owner of two hundred and fifty-seven acres of fine land in section 6, Washing- ton township, a part of which belongs to the old homestead formerly owned and developed by his father. Mr. Streib was born in Washing- ton township, Grant county, Indiana, May 19, 1869, and is a son of Jacob and Caroline (Bowers) Streib.

The founder of the Streib family in America was John Streib, a soldier of the army of Napoleon I, who after the retreat from Moscow came to this country, and located in Rockingham county, Virginia, where his son, Jacob Streib, the grandfather of William H. Streib, was born. Jacob Streib migrated to Preble county, Ohio, thence to Wayne county, Indiana, and in 1839 came to the Mississinewa country, in Grant county, where he became one of the section's earliest settlers. For thirty years he was engaged in farming on a tract of one hundred and sixty acres, and after his retirement from agricultural pursuits removed to Marion and engaged in the grocery business, but later returned to Washington township where he died at the age of ninety-seven years. He married Susannah Klingenpiel, and they became the parents of six children, namely: Sarah, who married Christian Buhl, a wealthy brewer of Richmond, Indiana; Catherine, who became the wife of Thomas O'Hara, also of that city; Sophia, who became the wife of Edward Guinan, a musician of Marion, who served during the Mexican War in the American army and later became the organizer and leader of the first Marion band; George, who was a soldier during the Mexican War; Susan, who became the wife of William Ross, and moved to Colo- rado Springs, Colorado, and Jacob.

Jacob Streib, the father of William H. Streib, was born in Rock- ingham county, Virginia, June 17, 1831, and was reared on the pioneer homestead place in Grant county, Indiana, where he received one hun- dred and twenty acres of his father's property. He became a pioneer in the cattle business, engaging in selling stock to western feeders, subsequently built the first stock scales in this part of the state, carried on an extensive business with the United States Government during the war between the North and the South, and was known as one of the largest stock growers in Grant county. He became the owner of eight hundred and fifteen acres of land, and at the time of his retirement, in 1890, gave each of his sons a property, and from that time led a quiet life in Marion, dying August 11, 1904. During his long resi- dence here he made numerous acquaintances and among these were numbered many personal friends. On December 27, 1853, Mr. Streib was married to Caroline Bowers, of Richmond, Indiana, and they became . the parents of five sons, namely : James Monroe, John Thomas, George W., Franklin and William H. The mother died July 23, 1899.

William H. Strieb received his education in District School No. 3, in Washington township, and was reared to agricultural pursuits on the home farm, where he has always resided. At the age of thirty years he bought one hundred acres of land, 'and at the time of his

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father's death inherited one hundred and fifty-seven acres as his share of the estate, and now has ninety-two acres in his home place and one hundred and sixty-five acres in another tract, this land being valued at $125 an acre. Of this all is under a high state of cultivation except fifty acres of timber land. In 1912 Mr. Streib raised two thousand bushels of corn and one thousand eight hundred and twelve bushels of oats, and cut fifty tons of hay, in addition to selling fifty-five hogs. He keeps forty head of cattle, twelve horses and twenty-five sheep, and his ventures in stock raising have been as successful as his grain grow- ing enterprises. The large eleven-room brick house on this property was erected about 1870, by Charles Hummel, while the barn, a sub- stantial structure, was erected by Mr. Streib's father. The general appearance of this farm indicates the presence of thrift, industry and good management, qualities which have always characterized Mr. Streib's undertakings.

In 1894, Mr. Streib was married to Miss Cora Belle Creviston, daughter of H. M. Creviston, of Marion.

HOMES CRETSINGER. The career of Homes Cretsinger in Washington township has been a long and honorable one, and has covered a period that has been marked by this section's greatest growth. While a resi- dent here he witnessed the advent of the first railroad, the 'arrival of the first street car in the city of Marion, and the building of two court- houses, and has seen Grant county grow from a sparsely-settled, unde- veloped country into a center of agricultural, commercial and educa- tional activity. Although now past sixty years of age, he continues to be actively engaged in affairs and to maintain his position as one of Washington township's most influential and public-spirited men.

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Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 106

Author: Rolland Lewis Whitson Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Rolland Lewis Whitson
Publication date: 1914
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1034