Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 24

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

USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial History of Grant County Indiana > Part 24

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Oscar C. Bradford was born on the home farm in Grant county and received his primary education in the community schools, later supple- menting this elementary training by a good practical education in other schools. He finished a thorough course of study in the Indianapolis Business College in 1896, and then spent a year at DePauw University, in Greencastle, Indiana. In 1890 the young man began teaching, and from then until 1895 he spent the summer months in study at the Marion Normal College, his teaching being carried on during the winter seasons.

In 1900 he removed to -Warren, Indiana, and was there employed as a bookkeeper for a well known hardware firm in that place, some little time later becoming secretary-treasurer of the Warren Machine Com- pany, a corporation, of which he was a director. He was with this firm, whose business was the manufacturing of oil well machinery and repairs,

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MR. AND MRS. ISAIAH DAWSON.

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for three years, and in 1904 engaged in business for himself, making the hardware and implement business as the object of his interest. He located at 521-23 North Washington street, in Marion, Indiana, and continued for three years, when the business was organized into a close corporation, the stock being held by himself, his father and his brother. It has since continued in a successful and enterprising manner, and the business is regarded as one of the solid enterprises of the city.

In 1908 Mr. Bradford was elected a trustee of Washington town- ship, and he still holds that office. He is a prominent Democrat and was chairman of the Democratic Central Committee of Grant county during the presidential campaign of 1912, and the results of the election were the most victorious ever experienced by the Democrats of this section.

Mr. Bradford was married on June 17, 1899, to Ethel O. Stevens, the daughter of Harrison and Sarah (Beach) Stevens, another pioneer family of Grant county, and highly esteemed wherever they are known. Mrs. Bradford was born in Pleasant township, Grant county, and there reared. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bradford, two of whom, Ruth M. and George R., are living. The second born, Doris A., died in 1906 at the age of five years.

Mr. and Mrs. Bradford are highly regarded in their home com- munity and have a part in the best social activities of the place.

ISAIAH DAWSON. The Dawson name has been prominently identified with the townships of Pleasant and Jefferson since pioneer days, and Isaiah Dawson has spent all his life since his marriage in Jefferson town- ship, and is a progressive farmer on section thirty-six, where he culti- vates a fine homestead surrounded with all the comforts and facilities of modern farm life.

The Dawsons came from North Carolina, were first settled in Wayne county, Indiana. The grandfather of Isaiah was William Dawson, who was born either in North Carolina or Virginia, and was one of the early settlers of Wayne county, Indiana. He had married back east Miss Tabitha Simons. His death occurred in Wayne county when about middle life. Ile was a farmer, and a member of the Christian church, but very little is known of him or his ancestors. His wife survived him a good many years, came to Grant county, and died at the home of her son Nathan Dawson in Pleasant township in 1873, when eighty-four years of age. She was an old-time Methodist, and much loved and respected for her fine qualities of heart and mind. The following are the children in her home circle: Thomas, William, Garrison, Henry, Nathan, John, Sarah Jane, and Margaret, all of whom married and all lived to be good old people and had families. William, Garrison and Thomas each served three years in Indiana regiments during the war, and came home without serious injury.

Nathan Dawson, father of Isaiah, was born in Wayne county, Indiana, and died at his home in Old Town or New Cumberland, near the little city of Matthews, July 17, 1896. He was a farmer, and fairly success- ful, a man of good influence and high in the esteem of his neighborhood. A short time after his marriage he located in Grant county, entering eighty acres of land from the government in Pleasant township near Jalapa, and the first home was a log cabin, with a puncheon floor, and much of the furniture was made with his own hands. He remained there until 1872, when he went west to Iowa, spending two and a half years there and a similar time in Kansas, then returning to Grant county and buying one hundred acres not far from the original home which he had secured from the government. In that homestead he died in the

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fall of 1882, at the age of about 72 years. His wife was Actious Owings, and she was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, and was brought when a child to Delaware county, Indiana, where she grew up. Her father, Rich- ard Owings, died in Delaware county. Of his children, Richard Lemon 'Owings was a pioneer in the great west and was associated with the historic character Kit Carson for about fifteen years in all the wild ventures and undertakings of that historic figure. Nathan Dawson after the death of his wife retired to New Cumberland and lived with his son Dr. C. F. Dawson, a practicing physician there, until his death, which occurred very suddenly when he was seventy-two years of age. He was a strong Republican, and though a man of little education had an excel- lent influence and stood high in his community. For two years, during the war, he served as a Union soldier, in two different Indiana regiments. His church membership was with the Christian denomination. Isaiah was the first son and the third child in a family of seven children, others being mentioned as follows: Elizabeth, who died in Ohio, after her marriage, and her three children are all married; Emaline died in Grant county after her marriage, leaving three children, all of whom are now established in homes of their own; Isaiah, who was next in order of birth; Dr. C. F. Dawson, who is a graduate of the Eclectic School of Medicine, and for many years has been a practicing physician at Matthews, and is now living with his second wife, having had three chil- dren by his first marriage; Henry now lives on a farm near Marion, is a widower, and has two sons and one daughter; Mollie is the wife of Joel Veach, lives on a farm in Pulaski county, and has three living children.

Isaiah Dawson was born on his father's old homestead in Pleasant township of Grant county, October 13, 1853. Since his marriage he has been identified with Jefferson township, where his hard-working industry and good citizenship have placed him in the ranks of the most progres- sive people in that vicinity. He is the owner of a farm of one hundred and twenty acres and all but fifteen acres of timberland is under the plow. A big red barn is a conspicuous feature of the place, and in 1900 Mr. Dawson built the large dwelling which shelters himself and family.

In Jefferson township, thirty-seven years ago, Mr. Dawson married Miss Rebecca Needler, who was born on the farm where she and her hus- band now live, in 1849. She is the daughter of James Needler, and the Needler family are long residents of Grant county, and are mentioned on other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson have lost two children in early childhood, and those living are: Pearl A., who was born, reared and educated in Jefferson township, and now is active man- ager of his father's farm. He married Ella Huntzinger and they have a daughter, Mary Rebecca. Henry Ovid now lives at home with his parents, and is unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church and his politics is Republican.

CHARLES E. WORRELL. "Ambition has no rest," said Bulwer-Lytton, and there are but few who are unable to cite instances that would seem to bear out the statement of the man. Twenty-four years of con- tinuous service as chief engineer of the National Military Home at Marion on the part of Charles E. Worrell, during which he has not once relieved the tedium of his daily task by availing himself of the annual thirty day vacation that is accorded to men, indicate something of the untiring spirit of the man-of the energy and ambition that carries him forward from day to day with no thought of rest from toil. or in self-seeking of whatever nature. He has gone on with the duties of his position from season to season, year in and out, and under his regime as chief engineer the National Military Home has advanced from

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a farm to one of the finest and most extensive in America, housing, as it does, 1600 men, and caring for them in the most approved methods. Mr. Worrell is in full charge of all mechanical appliances, power house, cold storage house and other similar appurtenances of the Home, and since he has been in the service, the forty-five buildings that adorn the grounds today have been built and brought into use. His work has been far reaching in its very nature, calling forth every quality of ability that a man in such a position might ever be required to apply, and Mr. Worrell has never failed in the application of his judgment as an engineer, nor has his enviable record as a man ever been impugned in any quarter.

Mr. Worrell was born in Switzerland county, Indiana, on October 14, 1858, and is the son of N. and Abbie Ann (Hulley) Worrell, both natives of Pennsylvania, and people of English descent and parentage. The father was a stonemason and he came to Switzerland county from Pennsylvania in 1847, locating in Marion as late as in 1901, there making his last home with his son, and dying in his home in 1905. The mother passed away ere the family exodus from Switzerland county, death claiming her in 1893. They were the parents of five children, three of the number living today. Besides the subject there are William H. Worrell, who lives on the old home place, and Mrs. Anna L. Morgan, of Switzerland county, Indiana.

Charles E. Worrell received his education in the high school in the town of Vevay in Switzerland county, and also attended Moorefield Academy. He was eighteen years old when he finished his schooling and applied himself diligently, as he has done all things, to the business of learning the machinist's trade, and for ten years thereafter he was identified with that work. He then began to interest himself in the natural gas business, and he helped to drill the first gas well in Grant county. This well, located at Fourteenth and Bools street, in Marion, was drilled in 1887, and being a complete success, may be said, without fear of contradiction, to have started the gas industry that eventually came to be a gas boom, and waxed strong throughout this part of the state.

Mr. Worrell, however, did not long continue to be indentified with the newly fledged industry, and on October 1, 1889, he came to Marion as chief engineer for the National Military Home. Here he has been stationed ever since, and he is on the records as the oldest man in the service of the Home today. His duties are of a manifold nature, embrac- ing the actual control of the entire plant in its operation. An expert mechanical engineer, he is qualified to manage every branch of the oper- ating service, and drainage, sewerage, hot water, gas, steam, etc., all come under his direct supervision. That his work has been well up to standard, and above it for the most part, is well evidenced in his long continued control of the work, and every confidence is felt in his ability and integrity by the officials of the institution.

Mr. Worrell was married on October 24, 1884, to Miss Belle Hough, the daughter of William A. and Mary Hough, of Winchester, Randolph county, Indiana. Four children have been born to them,-Inez, Mabel, Helen and Elwood.

A Democrat, Mr. Worrell takes a praiseworthy interest in the affairs of the party, though he is in no sense a politician, and his fraternal affiliations are confined to his membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with which he has been identified since 1880.

HARRY MILLER, M. D. Among the highly respected members of the medical profession in Grant county, Indiana, is Harry Miller, M. D.

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He is chief surgeon at the National Military Home in Marion, and is widely known for his conscientious and able service in this position. It is a post that requires not only surgical and medical skill of the highest order, but also no small amount of executive ability, and Dr. Miller has been an extremely efficient and successful executive.

Harry Miller was born on the 3rd of August, 1867, in Shelby county, Indiana, the son of John H. and Mary J. (Robinson) Miller, both of whom were natives of Shelby county, Indiana. John H. Miller was a soldier in the Seventy-ninth Indiana Regiment during the Civil war and is now living in Shelby county, Indiana, his wife being deceased.

Dr. Miller grew up in the county of his birth, attending school at Morristown until he was ready to take his medical education. He then entered the Indiana Medical College and was graduated from this insti- tution with the class of 1891. During the same year, on the 30th of May, he entered the National Military Home in Marion as an interne. Here he remained as an interne for eighteen months, at the end of which time he was made first assistant surgeon to Dr. Kimball, who was at that time chief surgeon. When Dr. Kimball died in 1904, Dr. Miller was made chief surgeon, and has remained in this office ever since. He has a staff of four assistants and the care of two hundred and fifty soldiers, so his time is completely filled with his professional duties. He has, however, time for a little recreation which he finds chiefly as a member of the Marion Golf Club. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, being a member of the blue lodge, and he also belongs to the Sons of Veterans.

Dr. Miller was married on the 1st of January, 1900, to Adelaide Smith, of Shelby county, Indiana, and they have no children.

MAJOR JAMES W. SANDERSON, treasurer of the National Military Home in Marion, Indiana, is one of those men whom men admire and women trust. Frankness and honesty and an entire lack of affectation in this age of shams and pretentiousness have won for him a wide popular- ity. He not only has a splendid record as a soldier but an enviable one as a railroad man, having been for many years in the railroad business in the central part of the United States. In the position which he now occupies, one that requires both executive and financial ability, Major Sanderson has been entirely successful, and has carried out his trust in a way that has won him much admiration.

Major Sanderson was born on a farm in Lucas county, Ohio, on the 4th of June, 1844. He is a son of David and Eliza Ann (Wood) Sander- son, his father having been born near Salem, Massachusetts, and his mother being a native of Ohio. David Sanderson was a farmer and lived in Lucas county, Ohio, all his life. He and his wife were the parents of five boys, of whom three are now living. Of these, Myron P. is a farmer in Lucas county, Ohio, A. D. lives in Deerfield county, Michigan, and the Major.

Until he was eighteen years of age, Major Sanderson made his home on his father's farm and when he was not engaged in helping with the work of the farm he was attending the common schools of the community. After finishing the courses offered therein he was sent to Central Ohio Conference College, at Maumee City, Ohio; where he completed his education. After this he went into railroading, entering first the service of the Lake Shore road, which was at that time known as the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad. He was later made general agent at White Pigeon, Michigan, and here he remained for nineteen and a half years. It was in 1892 that he came to Marion and Grant county, Indiana, as chief clerk for the Clover Leaf Railroad Company.

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Crefred Brigh

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After five years in this position he entered the service of the Panhandle road, remaining with this corporation for four years. In all he com- pleted over thirty years of service in various railroads, both in train service and in station work, and when he left the service railroading lost a valuable and experienced man.

On the 15th of March, 1901, he came to the National Military Home in the capacity of quartermaster and acting treasurer, and in 1906 he became treasurer of this great national institution. His military record begins in 1862 when he enlisted in the Eighty-fourth Ohio Regiment for the three months term of service. He served through this enlistment and then re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment, and finally came into the command of a company in the One Hundred and Eighty-ninth Ohio, from which he was mustered out in September, 1865, having seen almost constant service since the beginning of his term of enlistment.

Major Sanderson was married on the 2nd of April, 1873, to Mary L. Sheldon, of Blissville, Michigan, a daughter of Judge Homer J. Shel- don, who was a delegate to the famous Michigan Constitutional Con- vention. They have one son, Zach C. Sanderson, who is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and has further added to his advantages by a trip abroad. He taught history in the Winona College, at Winona, Indiana, for one year and is now traveling for the Century Publishing Company. Major Sanderson has never cared to take an active part in politics for like all true soldiers he is a citizen of the United States and politics that disrupt the country and lead so often to genuine harm, seem of minor interest to him. He is, however, an advocate of the princi- ples of the Republican party, and casts his ballot at election times.

ALFRED PUGH. One of Grant county's native sons who has attained distinction in business circles and who ranks among the most enterpris- ing and progressive citizens of Upland is Alfred Pugh, notary public and insurance man, who is widely known in fraternal activities of the state. Mr. Pugh comes of Welsh ancestry, his grandfather, Azariah Pugh, being an emigrant from Wales to the United States and an early settler in Virginia. Records of this ancestor have been lost, and little is known of him save that he died in Frederick county, probably in middle life, and that his wife likely died there. They were the parents of two sons and two daughters: Michael, the father of Alfred Pugh; Jesse, who died unmarried as a young man; Catherine, who was married; and Elizabeth, who married Jesse Trowbridge and died in Frederick county, Virginia.

Michael Pugh was born in that county about 1795, and there grew to manhood, being reared to agricultural pursuits. He was there mar- ried to Elizabeth Caudy, who was born in Hampshire county, Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1805, daughter of James Caudy, a native of Ire- land, who came to the United States when young. Her mother was a Miss Lyon, whose father came from Ireland. They were married in Vir- ginia where they lived to advanced years and died in the faith of the Methodist church. After their marriage, Michael and Elizabeth Caudy removed to Guernsey county, Ohio, and there settled on a farm, but following the birth of their first child, James, came overland to Indiana, with a yoke of oxen, one horse and a covered wagon, camping by the roadside at night in true pioneer fashion. In 1834 they located on a farm in section 13, Jefferson township, Grant county, where the father entered 160 acres of land, and for some years thereafter was compelled to walk over a blazed trail through the woods all the way to Fort Wayne, this journey taking four days. On this farm Mr. Pugh made numerous Vol. 11 -11

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improvements, building two log cabins and then a frame house, the latter of which is still standing on the old homestead and occupied by his grand- son. The old home farm has never gone out of the family name, but is kept as an inheritance. Mr. Pugh was a sturdy, industrious man, whose tireless industry and unbounded energy assisted him in making a success of his operations in the agricultural field. He stood six feet tall, was a man of iron nerve, and while he never saw active military service at the front, owing to his age, was captain of a local militia company at the time when soldiers were being mustered into the service. He was liberal in his donations to all worthy enterprises, and although he was a member of the Methodist Protestant church made a gift of the land for the cemetery at the Shiloh Methodist Episcopal church. He died August 23, 1863, widely mourned throughout the community, while the mother, who was a charter member of the Shiloh church, died at the old home in 1890. They belonged to the strong old pioneer stock which faced the dangers of the unknown forests, where the father with his trusty flint- lock supplied the family with game, while the mother remained at home and wove and spun the cloth for the clothing and blankets. Politically a Democrat, Mr. Pugh never cared for public office, preferring to devote himself to making a home for his family. To Mr. and Mrs. Pugh there were born the following children : James, who died after his marriage to Nancy E. Stephens, by whom he had three children; David Wesley, who married Margaret Smith, both of whom died in Grant county, leaving a son and daughter; Josiah, who died in Colorado, was married and had a family of children; John W., who died in Upland, was twice married and had three children by his first union; Mahlon, deceased, who was married and is survived by one son; Branson, who died leaving a widow and one daughter, one daughter having previously died; Amos, deceased, who left a widow and had one son who had previously died; and Alfred, Sally, Margaret and Maria Jane, all of whom died before our subject was born; Arminda H., who married Joseph Horner, both now being deceased; and Eliza E., who married John Needler, both being now deceased. Both Arminda II. and Eliza E. left children.

Like the most of his brothers and sisters, Alfred Pugh was born on the old Pugh homestead in Grant county, Indiana, his natal day being May 26, 1846. He grew up on the home farm, assisting his father and attend- ing the district schools and those at Hartford City, and on completing his education adopted the vocation of instructor and for five years taught school in Grant and Blackford counties, where he was widely and popu- larly known. Later Mr. Pugh gave up the teacher's profession to enter the business field, becoming the proprietor of a livery establishment, a business which he followed for six years. During the time that he was thus engaged he became interested in the insurance business, and after having engaged in this as a side line for some time determined to turn his entire attention thereto and accordingly disposed of his interests in the livery stable. He has continued to follow this line ever since, and the success that has rewarded his efforts demonstrates that he made no mistake when he changed vocations. It takes a peculiar talent to gain a full measure of prosperity in the insurance line-an ability that is a little different from that needed in almost any other. Strict integrity and honorable dealing play a large part, of course; energy, persistence and enterprise are essential, and a persuasiveness and stick-to-itiveness that knows not the meaning of the word failure. Mr. Pugh handles both life and fire insurance and their various branches, represents some of the leading companies in the country, and has become widely known in the insurance field as a man who can attain results. He has also for some years served in the capacity of notary public. As early as

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1878 Mr. Pugh was commissioned a justice of the peace, and served until 1882, and again in 1886 was commissioned a justice and served until 1906, thus occupying this office for almost a quarter of a century. He was the incumbent of this position when a justice had the same juris- diction as a justice of the peace, and through performing twenty-five marriages during the first year he acted in his official capacity became widely known as "the marrying justice."

Mr. Pugh was himself married in 1872, in Grant county, to Miss Hester Miles, who was born in Jefferson township, this county, May 13, 1852, and died February 22, 1892, daughter of Lorenzo and Phoebe ( Wass) Miles. Her parents came from Steuben county, New York, to Rush county, Indiana, at an early day, and not long thereafter made removal to Jefferson township, Grant county, where both passed away, the father when about sixty years of age, and the mother in advanced years, she having contracted a second marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Pugh there were born three children: Ocie V., who resides with her father and keeps house for him; Malevie L., the wife of John W. Doherty, of Benton Harbor, Michigan, who has three children, Miles A., Gayvelle E., and May H .; and Orie Hodd, single, a well known horseman of Wisner, Nebraska, who works for contractors.

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Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 24

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

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