Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 20

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

USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial History of Grant County Indiana > Part 20

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Mr. Kem served from 1905 to 1907 as a member of the city council and . for the past three years has been a member of the Marion Board of Park Commissioners. He is a member of Gen. Shunck Post, No. 23, G. A. R., of which he is Past Commander. He is also a Mason, and both he and his wife are members of the Eastern Star.

WHISLER FAMILY. Since the year 1838 the Whisler Family has been identified with Marion and Grant county. In this time five generations of the family have lived in Marion, and during all this time the name has been associated with industry and integrity in business relations and with the worthiest qualities of citizenship and personal character.

For many years Jacob Whisler, the founder of the family in Marion, was the village inn keeper at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. His inn was called the Whisler House. It was a well known place and a landmark at that time. One of the features which made it attractive to travelers was its immense stone barn.

Jacob Whisler in 1838 sold out this business and came overland to Marion with his family, arriving in the springtime when the roads were very bad, and horses had to be hitched tandem to pull the wagons through miring ways. After a long and laborious journey they reached their destination and settled two miles east of Marion. Jacob Whisler was born in 1776, the year of American Independence, and died in 1863, aged 87. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Mundobaugh. In the family were five sons and three daughters.

Jacob Whisler, son of Jacob Whisler, and representing the second generation in Marion, was born 1817, learned the cabinetmaker's trade, carrying it on many years. He was the first Democrat elected to any office in Grant county, being elected County Treasurer in 1854. Leaving the office at.the end of his term, he ran a general store until 1864 when he retired. His wife was a Marion girl, Weltha A. Horton, born 1818. They lived many years on Adams street just north of Fifth, and later at the old homestead in North Marion. Jacob Whisler died in 1875, and his wife in 1901. They were the parents of one son and two daughters; Mary married John Fitzgerald, and Martha married Ed Weaver.

Leroy M. Whisler, the son of the family last named, was born October 23, 1844, in Marion. He married Matilda M. Mckinney, daughter of Fielding S. McKinney, who was one of the early settlers in the county. Roy Whisler, as he always was called, followed the tin and hardware business, succeeding his father, but since 1900 has lived a retired life. For the last 15 years Mr. and Mrs. Whisler have spent the winters in Florida.

The fourth generation of the Whisler family in Marion includes the three sons of Leroy M. Whisler and wife. The oldest Jasper L. Whisler, born August 30, 1871, is a watchmaker and jeweler by trade, and has a jewelry store on the north side of the square for 20 years. There are probably very few persons who have a larger personal acquaintance in Marion and the surrounding country than he has. His wife was Viola M. Cramer; they have one daughter, Margaret, born December 1, 1896.

Ralph P. Whisler, the second son, is a contractor, and located at Richmond, Ind. He married Mirriam Hiatt; they have one son, Leroy Whisler. Jacob Whisler, the youngest son of Leroy M. Whisler and wife, is a traveling man. He has been with the National Cash Register Company for many years, generally traveling in the west. Leroy, the son of Ralph and Margaret Whisler, daughter of Jasper Whisler represent the fifth generation of the Whislers.

There are still in existence several very dear keepsakes of the original Jacob Whisler. Among these is the very fine old wall sweep

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clock, nine feet high, and in perfect preservation. It is still ticking in the home of Jasper L. (Jap) Whisler. The clock was brought overland from Chambersburg, Pa., in 1838 by Jacob Whisler. Several old pewter plates are among the family relics, and are tenderly handled for precious associations.

REV. HIRAM HARVEY. No history of old Grant county families would be complete without some space devoted to the Harvey family. It has lived in this county sixty-five years. A beautiful farmstead on section thirty-four of Liberty township is occupied by Rev. Hiram Harvey, and the same land was cleared and cultivated by his grandfather and father successively. Rev. Harvey's farm comprises ninety acres and in every attribute and improvement, is a farm of the highest class, and one that might well serve as a model of progressive Grant county agricul- ture. Some of the conspicuous features about this place are a com- modious and comfortable white house, with a correspondingly white barn, and flanking the farm buildings is a large silo with eighty tons capacity. In section thirty-five of the same township, Mr. Harvey owns another tract of sixty acres. All this land is cultivated up to the very highest efficiency, the fertility of the soil is as great now as it was seventy years ago, and the annual product represents a neat sum in the regular income of the owner. Mr. Harvey is a man of large and wholesome character, with strong spiritual tendencies. He is trustee of the endowment fund of the Fairmount Academy, a fund now amount- ing to more than twenty-two thousand dollars. He is also Evangelist superintendent of the Quaker Quarterly Meeting, and his wife is Sunday school superintendent of that meeting.

The history of the Harvey family begins with five brothers who came from North Carolina to Clinton county, Ohio, about one hundred and twenty years ago. One of these brothers was Eli Harvey, great- grandfather of Rev. Hiram Harvey. When a young married man he brought his family to Ohio, and at that time his son William, the grandfather, was a child. William Harvey was born about 1789, grew up on the family home in Clinton county, Ohio, and in that locality Eli and wife died. They were staunch members of the Quaker church, and industrious and quiet living farmers. William Harvey grew up in Clinton county, took up farming as his vocation, and married Ruth Hadley. Later they moved to Indiana, and became early settlers in Morgan county, near Moorsville. In Morgan county were some of their children born, including Jehu Harvey, born in 1833. In 1848 William Harvey and wife and family came to Grant county, and secured land which was almost new and largely unbroken in section thirty-four of Liberty township. The industry of William Harvey was largely responsible for the improvement and clearing of this land, and though the family first lived in one of the typical log cabins that habitation was later replaced by a good house and many other improvements testified to the sturdy and ambitious character of the Harvey race. William Harvey died when ninety-four year of age, and was preceded by his wife many years before, her death occurring sometime between 1850 and 1852. Both were birthright Quakers, and belonged to the Little Ridge church. The family of nine sons and three daughters of William Harvey and wife are mentioned as follows: David, Jonathan, William, Eli, Mahlon, Jehu, Sidney, Alvin, Hiram, Sallie, Rebecca, and Mary. Of the sons Alvin and Hiram died, the former at the age of seventeen and the latter at the age of seven. All the others grew up and were married and had families. The daughters, with the exception of one, had children.

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Jehu Harvey, the father, was as already stated, born in 1833, and was fifteen years of age when the family moved to Grant county. His early life was spent on the farm, and after reaching manhood he married Rebecca Reader, a daughter of Spencer and Julia (Cox) Reader. The Readers are a family of prominent old settlers of Liberty township, and are mentioned in other parts of this volume. Jehu Harvey and wife located on a farm in Liberty township, and owned and operated it successfully for some years, gradually acquiring other lands and improving them. His death occurred in 1875 on the farm now owned by his son Hiram in section thirty-four. For some years he had been in poor health. His widow still lives, is hale and hearty at the age of seventy-eight. Both parents were birthright Quakers, and worshipped at the Little Ridge church. Mrs. Harvey has for years been an elder in the Friends church. The politics of Jehu Harvey was Republican.

Nine children were the fruit of the union of Jehu Harvey and wife, and are mentioned as follows: 1. Hiram. 2. Edwin is a farmer, was twice married, lives in Liberty township, and there is one living child by each wife. 3. William R. lives on a farm in section thirty-four of Liberty township. 4. Cynthia, died when a young woman of seventeen years. 5. Ellen married Amiziah Beason, a merchant, now in business in the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada, and has four children. 6. Julia, died at the age of fourteen. 7. Mary, married Hiram Jarrett, a farmer in Hancock county, Indiana, and has two living children. 8. Mina, was the eighth child. 9. Alice, died at the age of twenty-eight unmarried.

Rev. Hiram Harvey, who was the oldest son and the first child in order of birth, was born in Liberty township, April 1, 1863. His home has been here all his life, and he now owns and occupies a farm cultivated by both his father and grandfather. His early education was better than ordinary, since he had the advantages of the common schools, and later three years in the county normal and one year in the state normal. When a little passed twenty years of age he began teaching, his first school being the Marks school district number four in Sims township. After three winters of teaching he took up his regular vocation as a farmer. In 1899 his comfortable dwelling was destroyed by fire and was at once replaced with the present modern residence, one of the most attractive in Liberty township. Mr. Harvey believes in the rotary principal of growing crops, and his land is divided into convenient fields and successively cropped with oats, corn, wheat, alfalfa, and other staple crops of Grant county. His stock consists principally of the Red Durock swine, and practically all the grain and forage products of the farm are fed to the stock.

Mr. Harvey was married in Fairmount township to Miss Sara E., usually called Sadie, Bell, a daughter of William Bell, of a prominent family mentioned elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Harvey was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, March 17, 1864. She was reared and educated in Indiana, and is the mother of two children, Alva, who died at the age of four and a half years; and Russell T., now twenty-one years of age, the husband of May Woodruff, and they live on the farm with Mr. Harvey. Mr. Harvey was for many years an elder in the Friends Society, and for the past six years has been a minister of the Friends Church. Mrs. Harvey is an elder in that society. Practically ever since he cast his first vote, Mr. Harvey has supported the Prohibi- tion cause.

ALVA L. HORNER. Jefferson township's prosperous farmers and leading citizens include Alva L. Horner, whose home is on section

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MR. AND MRS. A. L. HORNER AND SON

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fourteen of that township, with Upland as his post office. During a residence there of more than twenty years, Mr. Horner has given an illustration of what can be done in making a farm a business enterprise, and his estate, known as Greenview Farm, is one of the best in agricul- tural community.

Mr. Horner comes of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry, on his father's side, his grandfather Andrew Horner having been born in Pennsylvania. In Virginia, he married Nacy Walker, born in that old commonwealth, and after their marriage they lived in Pennsylvania for several years. Andrew Horner was a miller by trade, and operated flour mills in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. After two children were born to them in Pennsylvania, they moved to Ohio, during the twenties, and in Miami county of that state was born on April 20, 1834, David Horner, father of Alva L. In 1852 the family moved to Grant county, Indiana, locating on a partly improved farm in section twenty-three of Jefferson township. That was the home of Andrew Horner until his death. He passed away when he was sixty years of age, and a few years after the Civil war. His wife died some twenty years later, when eighty-six years old. They were members of the Presbyterian church, and David and Andrew were Republicans in politics.

David Horner was eighteen years old when the family moved to Grant county, and not long afterwards he went further west to Bureau county, Illinois, where he worked at farming, for an uncle James Walker. At the age of twenty-eight and still unmarried he returned to Grant county, and in section twenty-three of Jefferson township, made his first purchase of land, comprising forty acres. He was a man of enterprise, was a hard worker, and used good business judgment in increasing his property, and to the first purchase added forty acres, then eighty acres, followed by seventy acres, and at the time of his death owned in the aggregate two hundred and eighty-five acres of fine Grant county real estate. Nearly all that land was well improved, and had two sets of farm buildings. David Horner died at Upland July 1, 1908, having lived in the village the last six years of his life. He was a Republican in politics, but never affiliated with any church.

David Horner was married in Jefferson township to Miss Mary McPherren, who was born in Grant county, in Jefferson township, June 6, 1839, and now lives at Upland, a well preserved old lady, seventy- four years of age. Her father, James McPherren, came from Ohio to Grant county, and entered land from the government, but later sold out and went to Illinois, where he lived until his wife's death, and then came back to Grant county, and died here when about four score years of age. For a number of years he followed his trade of black- smith, and kept a shop on his farm, and attended to the wants of his community in that line. James McPherren was of Scotch ancestry, and a Presbyterian in faith. He and five of his sons, named John, Calvin, Martin, Jesse, and George, were all soldiers in Illinois regiments during the war, and George was killed in the first battle in which his regiment was engaged. All the others lived and returned safely with the excep- tion of slight wounds and are still living. Alva L. Horner, the oldest of his father's family, has the following brothers and sisters living: I. Elzora, who is a farmer on the old homestead, and has one son and one daughter ; Anna, who married James A. Wilson, a farmer in Jeffer- son township, and is the mother of a son and a daughter; Harry L. was educated in Taylor University at Upland, and the State University at Bloomington, taking other special courses in Normal School, and is new instructor in mathematics in the Chicago public schools, and is married and has one son and one daughter living. The deceased chil-

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dren are: Arzie, who died at the age of seven years; James, who died after his marriage; Lydia Roberta, who died after her marriage to Charles Pugh, and left one daughter.

Alva L. Horner was born on his father's farm in Jefferson town- ship, March 21, 1862, was reared on a farm, and lived at home and assisted his father in managing the estate and contributing his labor to the support of the younger members of the family until he was twenty- eight years of age. In the meantime he had been preparing for an independent career, and had bought sixty acres of land on section fourteen. Since taking possession of that place he has developed it into a profitable and beautiful homestead. In addition to his farm of sixty acres he also owns forty acres of the old homestead. His residence is a comfortable building, standing in the midst of trees, and painted white, and his barn is on a foundation thirty by forty-four feet, and built on modern principles of barn architecture. He keeps good grade of stock, and his farm is getting better every year.

Mr. Horner was married in Mercer county, Illinois, to Nellie Sharer. She was born in Mercer county, Illinois, February 20, 1875, and lived there until her marriage. Her parents were George Adam and Sarah Jane (Morgan) Sharer. Her father was born in Herkimer county, New York, April 17, 1828, and died September 6, 1892. Her mother was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, December 20, 1842, and died June 27, 1900. They were married near Alexis, Illinois, and lived as farmers and stock raisers in Mercer county, until their death. They were members of the Presbyterian faith, and Mr. Sharer was a Repub- lican. Of their ten children, five are still living, and Mr. Sharer had three children by his previous marriage to Sarah Whitten, who died in the prime of life.

Mr. and Mrs. Horner became the parents of two children, one of whom died unnamed. The survivor is Willard Sharer Horner, born July 17, 1902, and now in the Matthews grade school. Mr. and Mrs. Horner attend the Shiloh Methodist Episcopal church, 'and his vote is usually cast in the Republican interest.

HORACE N. TRUEBLOOD. One of the definite and undeniably success- ful enterprises of Marion is the Marion Steam Laundry, established here in April, 1895, by him whose name introduces this brief sketch. Mr. Trueblood's rise in the laundry business has been steady, and has come from a beginning, modest in the extreme, but well conducted and prosperous since its inception. The force of workers in the laundry has grown from six to thirty-nine, and every phase of the work has advanced in accordance. The record of the place is all sufficient to firmly establish Mr. Trueblood among the successful and capable business men of the city, and his position is one that he amply deserves.

Horace N. Trueblood was born on December 21, 1861, near New London, Howard county, Indiana, on the farm home of his parents, who were William and Ruth E. (Dixon) Trueblood, both natives of North Carolina. The mother was a granddaughter of Jonathan Lindley, who was chairman of the committee that established the site for the Indiana State University at Bloomington, receiving his appoint- ment to that commission by President Madison. He was in his day a wealthy man and one of exceeding great prominence in his part of the state.

Horace N. Trueblood comes of fine old Quaker stock, both on the paternal and maternal sides, and the instincts and training of the faith have in a measure guided his life in its devious paths and have had much to do with the shaping of his career. The public schools of

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Kokomo, whither the family removed when he was but a small boy, provided him with his education chiefly, and after finishing his schooling he was for some years identified with the shoe business in the city. In April, 1895, when he was thirty-four years old, he came to Marion, and here, casting about for a suitable business opening for an ambitious and hardworking man, he chanced upon a small and then unsuccessful laundry business, the same having been established in the city by Ira Gage some six months previous. The place was known as the Marion Steam Laundry, and when Mr. Trueblood came into ownership of the plant, he continued its operation under the name by which the public had already come to be more or less familiar with it. The successive growth and development of the laundry to its present flourishing state would require more space than is available at this point, but it will suffice to say that the laundry today is one of the best equipped, best managed and best operated establishments of its kind in the city and county. The plant is thoroughly modern, with the most approved and intricate machinery for the minimizing of labor and the producing of high class work, and every facility known to the laundry business is here employed. The phenomenal growth of the business has been in accordance with the spirit of the manager and owner, and the laundry has a reputation for fine work and quick service that is one of its most valuable assets.

Mr. Trueblood was married on October 1, 1889, to Miss Anna M. Willette, the daughter of Peter Willette, who pioneered to California in 1849 in quest of gold and fortune. To them were born four children, namely: Fred W., now twenty-three years old, and a graduate from the Indiana State University at Bloomington; Ruth A., now nineteen years old, is a student at Purdue University, in Lafayette, Indiana, where she is in pursuit of a higher knowledge of domestic science; Mark Sherwin, aged thirteen, and Horace Dixon, now seven years old, complete the family roster, and are spending their days in school, preparatory to useful existences in the world in future days.

The family are members of the Congregational church. Mr. True- blood is fraternally identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias, and his political tendencies are those of a Republican, although he is in no sense a politician, and has never held public office in all the years of his career thus far. His civic record for usefulness and loyalty is a fine one, and his citizenship is one of the highest order, and of which the community may well be proud.

FRANK MULLEN. Among the young business men of Grant county who have made prominent places for themselves in their various com- munities as enterprising and progressive operators, one may be especially mentioned in this connection,-Frank Mullen, one time teacher and farmer, but since 1911 prominently identified with the real estate business in Marion. During the years when he was occupied with farming activities, he held a most prominent place in Washington township, and was recognized as one of the more influential and successful men of his community. His record in his later business venture is none the less creditable, and he rightly enjoys the esteem and high regard of all who share in his acquaintance.

Born on June 22, 1872, on the farm home of the family in Grant county, Frank Mullen is the son of John and Cassie (Miller) Mullen. The father claims the state of Ohio as his native place and the mother is an Indianian. They are farming people who yet make their home in Franklin township, where they have long enjoyed the comforts of quiet country life. Three children were born to them. One died at the

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age of thirteen, and besides the subject they have a daughter, Mrs. Lulu McFarland.

Frank Mullen was born on the home farm, as has been stated previously, and his early education was found in the public schools. His parents were people who recognized the worth of an education, and gave to their son every possible advantage along lines of training. His two years at Fairmount Academy were followed by two year's in the Marion Normal College, where he received an excellent preparation for the work of teaching, in which he was for four years engaged after he finished his college work. His educational work was carried on in Grant county, in Washington township for the most part, but he began to feel the call of the soil after a few years of his pedagogic life, and consequently returned to the farm and thereafter gave his mind and muscle to the work of that enterprise, continuing successfully until November, 1911, when he engaged in the real estate business in Marion, under the firm name of Westfall & Mullen. They have since carried on a thriving business in real estate, and are reckoned with the most successful of that class of business men in Marion.

During the years when Mr. Mullen was occupied with his farm in Huntington county, he was serving much of the time as trustee of Wayne township, and he bore the distinction in those days of being the youngest trustee in service in the entire state. He is a man who has ever displayed a generous minded interest in the civic and political affairs of his community, and his support has always been given to worthy enterprises and movements that might be promulgated in his town and county.

Progressive and energetic, his influence is one that will ever make itself felt wherever he may be found. He is a supporter of the Prohibition party and upholds its principles and doctrines on all. occasions. With his wife, he has membership in the Baptist church, and he is fraternally identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

On November 7, 1896, Mr. Mullen was married to Miss Emma Smith,, the daughter of George Smith, long a resident of Washington township, where Mrs. Mullen was reared, and to them have been born two sons, Everett and Arthur.

GEORGE L. CLUPPER. One of the most gratifying phases in the history of Grant county is that afforded in the fact that so appreciable a percentage of its honored and representative citizens and leading men of affairs can claim the fine old Hoosier state as the place of their nativity, and this distinction applies to him whose name introduces this paragraph, and who is well and favorably known as one of the prom- inent figures in the business activities of the city of Marion, where he holds the responsible post of manager of the Marion Loan Company.

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Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 20

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

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