Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 25

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

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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).

Mr. Pugh is a Democrat in politics, and has been active in local and state affairs, having been a delegate to numerous conventions of his party. He is one of the best known figures in the fraternal life of Grant county, being past master of Upland Lodge No. 427, F. & A. M., having been made a Mason in 1868. He joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the following year, and is past grand and past chief patriarch of Shideler Lodge No. 352 and Upland Encampment No. 213. In addi- tion he has four times been representative to the State Masonic Grand Lodge, three times to the State Grand Lodge of the Odd Fellows, and twice to the Grand Encampment of the latter order. His friendships are only limited to the number of his acquaintances, not alone in frater- nal life, but in business, public and private circles of the city.

HARRY WILLIAMSON, M. D. Among the most popular men in Marion, Indiana, not only in his own profession but among people at large is Dr. Harry Williamson. He has the advantage of a thorough scientific education, long experience in his profession and a charming sympathetic personality that makes him a welcome guest even though he comes in his professional capacity. He has a large general practice and holds a high place in the regard of the people of Marion and Grant county.

Dr. Harry Williamson was born in Butler county, Ohio, on the 16th of September, 1864, the son of David and Frances (Siegrist) Williamson. Both of his parents were born in the state of Ohio and they are both living.

Dr. Williamson was educated in the public schools of Butler county, Ohio, until he was of an age to go away to school, when he was sent to the Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana. He received his medical education in the Indiana Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1892. He later took courses in medical work in the New York Polyclinic.

The doctor first began to practice at Knightstown, Indiana, only remaining there a year, however, before he removed to Chicago. He practiced in the city for seven years, and in the boundless opportunities of a general city practice he had the finest of practical training. In 1900 he came to Marion and began to practice. He has been located here ever since and has many warm friends throughout the city. His offices

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are located in the Marion Block and the practice which he has built up is now one of the largest in the city.

The doctor is very much interested in the affairs of the various fra- ternal societies of which he is a member. In the Masons he is a Knight Templar and he is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and of the Elks. He is very fond of athletics and holds membership in the Country Club and in the Golf Club.

On the 30th of November, 1892, Dr. Williamson was married to Mary L. Davis, of Glenwood, Rush county, Indiana. No children have been born to the doctor and his wife.

THOMAS D. BARR. Practically all of the years of Thomas D. Barr's life have been spent in faithful service to the people, not, as a man in public office, alone, but as a teacher of their children, and although his service in his various public positions is recognized and appreciated it is as a teacher that he is best known and respected. He taught in the schools of Indiana for twenty years, accomplishing much for the cause of education and although his time is now filled with the duties of his office as deputy county auditor of Grant county, Indiana, he is still keenly interested in the cause of education.

Thomas D. Barr is a descendant of one of the very first settlers in Grant county, being a great-grandson of Thomas Dean, who settled in Grant county, in Jefferson township, at a very early day. A was also one of the first school teachers in this section and in 1860 was auditor of Grant county. Thomas D. Barr is the son of John L. and Elizabeth (Dean) Barr, his father being a native of Pennsylvania and his mother having been born in Grant county, Indiana. John L. Barr was a soldier throughout the Civil war, being a member of the First Volunteer Infantry of Iowa. After the war he practiced law in Missouri and there he died when his son was quite young.

Thomas D. Barr was born in Saint Clair county, Missouri, on the 18th of October, 1870, being one of two children born to his parents and he is now the only living child. In 1874 he returned to Grant county with his mother and two years later in 1876 she died, leaving him an orphan of just six years of age. Although deprived of his parents he received a good education. He first attended the public schools of the section and then entered Fairmount Academy. He later attended the Indiana State Normal College at Terre Haute and then completed his education with a business course at the Indianapolis Business College.

Mr. Barr began life as a teacher, first teaching in Grant county, in Monroe, Van Buren and Liberty township. He also taught in other parts of the state. For a time he taught in Richsquare and Lewisville, in Henry county, Indiana. He was principal of the Van Buren, Indiana, high school and taught in both the Fairmount Academy and the high schools in Fairmount.

Always keenly interested in public matters and in political questions, he took an active part in such affairs but it was not until 1906 that he accepted a public office. At this time he was principal of the high school in Van Buren and he was appointed deputy sheriff, serving in the office over a year. He resigned this office to enter the government service as a meat inspector and in 1907 resigned from this position to accept that of deputy clerk. His love for his old profession called him back once more to accept a position as teacher in the Fairmount Academy. From this school he went to the high school of Fairmount but he resigned from its teaching staff in 1911 to accept the office of deputy auditor of Grant county. He is a man full of energy and industry and has made a most

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efficient public official. During his vacations he has worked on the news- papers of Marion, writing the advertisements.

Both Mr. Barr and his wife are members of the Friends church, his wife being very prominent in this church. In politics Mr. Barr is a mem- ber of the Republican party and in fraternal affairs he belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

Mr. Barr was married in November, 1893, to Miss Daisy Douglas Brushwiller, who was born in Jonesboro, Grant county, Indiana. Mrs. Barr is a grand-daughter of George Douglas, who was one of the early pioneers of Grant county and for seventy years was a minister of the Methodist church in Grant county. Mrs. Barr is a woman of rare intel- lectual attainments and is the pastor of the Friends church in Muncie, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Barr have one son, Raymond Barr, who was born December 18, 1895, and is now in high school.

STEPHEN G. BALDWIN. A scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Grant county, the late Stephen G. Baldwin here passed his entire life, and his exalted integrity of character, as well as his large and worthy achievement in connection with the practical activities of life, gave him prestige as one of the representative citizens of his native county, where he ever held inviolable place in the confidence and high regard of his fellow men, so that there is all of propriety in according to his memory a special tribute in this publication.

On the old Baldwin homestead farm, situated on the banks of Deer creek, in Mill township, Grant county, Indiana, Stephen G. Baldwin was born on the 3d of August, 1850, and has passed the closing years of his life in the city of Marion, the judicial center and metropolis of the county, where he was summoned to eternal rest on the 13th of October, 1909,-known and revered as one of the noble and loyal citizens and representative business men of the county's capital city. The condi- tions and influences of the home farm compassed the boyhood and early youth of Mr. Baldwin and he thus learned the lessons of practical indus- try in the formative period of his life. After completing the curriculum of the Deer Creek district school he continued his studies in the graded school at Jonesboro, and thus he laid a firm foundation for the broad and liberal education which he later gained through self-discipline and active association with men and affairs. He was, however, afforded also the advantages of the Bryant & Stratton Business College in the city of Indianapolis, and the training further fortified him for the responsi- bilities and actions of active business affairs. As a boy he had not only assisted in the work of the home farm but also in that of the shoemaker's shop maintained by his father in the village of Jonesboro.

In 1874, at the age of twenty-four years, Mr. Baldwin established himself in the insurance and loan business at Marion, and in these lines he was one of the first in the city to build up a large and substantial business. In this important line of enterprise he continued, with large and worthy success, until his death, when he was succeeded by his only son, who still remains at the head of the S. G. Baldwin Insurance & Loan Agency, which perpetuates the name of its honored founder.

Mr. Baldwin was a man of broad views, was generous and tolerant in his judgment, was loyal and progressive as a citizen, and his name and memory are revered by all who came within the circle of his benig- nant influence. Though he had no desire to enter the turbulent stream of practical politics, he was well fortified in his views concerning matters of governmental and economic import and was a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party.

He was imbued with great love for nature "in her visible forms,"

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and found great pleasure in the propagation of flowers and ornamental shrubbery about his attractive residence premises, on South Washington street, the place becoming a veritable floral bower under his effective labors and artistic predilections. He took vital interest in all that touched the progress and prosperity of his home city and county and was a valued member of the Marion Commercial Club, of which he was a director at the time of his death.

On the 23d of August, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Baldwin to Miss Elizabeth C. Horne, who was born and reared in Grant county and who is a daughter of the late Dr. Samuel S. Horne, Sr., of Jonesboro.

Moe H. Baldwin, the only son of Stephen G. and Elizabeth C. (Horne) Baldwin, was born in the city of Marion on the 19th of January, 1879, and is a scion of the third generation of the family in Grant county. He fully profited by the advantages afforded in the public schools of his native city and after his high-school course he entered Hanover College, at Hanover, Jefferson county, after which he was matriculated in Purdue University, at Lafayette, afterward attending the celebrated University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor.

After leaving the last mentioned institution Mr. Baldwin turned his attention to the illustrating and designing business.

A few years ago he collaborated with M. B. Edmiston in the compila- tion and publication of a book of caricature of Marion business men, which was entitled "Some Greater Marion Faces," and which met with high commendation and which showed many admirable specimens of his skill as an artist. Upon the death of his honored father he succeeded to the insurance and loan business established by the latter, one of the largest and most important of the kind in the state but one that is con- ceded to take precedence of all others in Grant county.

Mr. Baldwin is well known in his native county, where his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances, and he and his wife are prominent figures in the representative social activities of their home city. He pays allegiance to the Republican party, is president of the Mecca Club, holds membership in the Marion Country Club, and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks.

On the 3d of September, 1901, Mr. Baldwin wedded Miss Lela Lutz, daughter of the late John Lutz.

AUSTIN POLSLEY. Among the citizens of Grant county who started out in life facing obstacles and with many disadvantages to overcome, and who have prospered and now stand among the county's substantial men, is Austin Polsley, who has an excellent farm on section twenty-four of Jefferson township, and has lived there for the past forty years.

He comes of an old Virginia family. His grandfather John H. Pols- ley was born in that state about 1800, married a Virginia girl, and some of their children at least were born in the state. They finally came west and settled in Henry county, Indiana. where they were pioneers. His first wife died there, leaving a large family of children. and in Henry county John H. Polsley married for his second wife, Phoebe Jones. In 1853 he went on further west, and again became a pioneer in the state of Iowa, in the southwestern section in Page county. His death occurred sometime in the seventies, when more than eighty years of age, and he was a man of unusual intelligence and information. He had been a farmer most of his life, and also merchandized for many years. By his two wives he became the father of twenty-three children. His second wife passed away in Iowa, and was likewise advanced in age.

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MR. AND MRS. AUSTIN POLSLEY

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Robert W. Polsley, father of the Grant county resident above named, was born in 1824, probably in Virginia, and was a child of his father's first marriage. He grew up in Henry county, Indiana, and learned the trade of carpenter and cabinet maker. When about twenty-two and still unmarried he came to Jefferson township in Grant county, and here met and married Mary Fergus. She was born in Miami county, Ohio, in 1832, and was a small child when her parents came to Indiana. Her brother is Warren Fergus, a well known Grant county citizen, and a more complete account of this family in Grant county will be found elsewhere under the Fergus name in this volume. Mary Fergus was sixteen years old when she married, and her death occurred in December 1851, at the age of nineteen. She left one child, Austin Polsley. Robert W. Polsley, soon afterwards, married Mrs. Josina (Powers) Swearingen, a widow of Henry Swearingen, who died leaving one son, Mark Swear- ingen, who is now married and is a prominent banker in Muncie, Indiana, and has three children.

Robert W. Polsley by his second marriage had one child, Mary, and after her birth, and when she was about six months old in 1855, the family moved out to Page county, Iowa, spending six weeks in going across. the country with team and wagon. He took up government land in southwestern Iowa, and started the labor required for making a home in a new country. His second wife died in Iowa, in 1859. A year or two later the war broke out, and Robert W. Polsley enlisted with a Page county company, but was attached to Co. F of the First Nebraska Volun- teer Infantry, and served for about one year. He took part in the battle of Shiloh, but was soon afterwards stricken with dysentery, and was sent to the hospital in Paducah, Kentucky, where he died during the summer of 1862. He left two children: one of them being Austin, by his first wife, and the second being Mary, the child of his second union.

After these children were left orphans they lived with strangers and kinsmen, and thus their early advantages were of a motley char- acter, and they started in life with many disadvantages.

When Austin Polsley was thirteen years old, he came to live with his grandfather, S. B. Fergus, in Grant county. At the age of nineteen he returned to Iowa, but on reaching his majority, again found a home in Grant county, and in 1873 bought his present farm of eighty acres. There he has lived and prospered, has improved his land in many ways, and has put up a fine set of farm buildings, which distinguish the place as one of the most valuable in that section. The large red barn and the good white house are conspicuous in the group of farm buildings.

By his first marriage to Miss Adaline Scott of Guernsey county, Ohio, who died November 17, 1908, at the age of fifty-seven, Mr. Polsley had seven children : Milo J., unmarried, now lives in Oklahoma ; Arvina, died at the age of sixteen; Orloff is a farmer in Blackford county, Indiana, and by his marriage to Lettie Kirkpatrick has one son, Wayne. The other children died in infancy or early childhood. Mr. Polsley after the death of his first wife married Mrs. Hattie (Benson) Peele. She was born in Morgan county, Indiana, July 28, 1867, a daughter of Temple S. and Mary (Hickman) Benson. He was a native of Ohio while the mother was born in Kentucky but was raised in Indiana. He moved to Shelby county, Indiana, in the early days, and later moved to Morgan county, Indiana, where they lived as prosperous farmers. Temple Benson was twice married, the maiden name of his first wife having been Katie Car- roll of Shelby county, where she died, leaving children. Mr. Benson afterwards married a third time, and moved from Morgan county to Indianapolis, where he died in 1905, having been born in 1830. During the Civil war he was a soldier in the Twenty seventh Indiana Regiment.

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His widow now lives in Indianapolis. Mrs. Polsley by her marriage with Tirey Peele, has a daughter, Naomi, the wife of Omer Huntzinger of Jefferson township. In 1900 the present Mrs. Polsley was left a widow with three children. In 1901 her house in Matthews burned and two of her children, Nina, aged sixteen months, and Merrill, aged three years, were burned to death. Mr. and Mrs. Polsley are Methodists in religious faith, and in politics he is an Independent Republican. His prosperity as a farmer may be further gauged by the fact that he is a director of the Matthews State Bank.

DR. NEWTON W. HIATT. Since 1889 Dr. Newton W. Hiatt has carried on the practice of dentistry in Marion, Indiana. His progress in his chosen profession has been of steady growth and he is known to be one of the most capable dentists in the county, where he has lived all his life, and is well known accordingly. Dr. Hiatt was born in Grant county, on November 25, 1865, and he is the son of Alfred and Amanda (Thomas) Hiatt, both of whom died when he was a small child. Dr. Hiatt knows practically nothing of the ancestry of early life of his parents, and beyond the fact that the father was a farmer near Roseburg, Grant county, where he spent his last days, and that he was at one time a wagon manufacturer in Marion and a Quaker in his religion, Dr. Hiatt is unable to furnish any details concerning his parents. He was one of their seven children, three of whom are now living.

Dr. Hiatt was educated in the public schools of Grant county and in the old school at College Corner and the Mississinewa School. When he had finished his schooling he went to work in a grocery store and for something like seven or eight years the young man carried on his work in that line. It was not until 1885 that he began to study dentistry in the office of Dr. Kinely in Marion, and he spent three years with that gentleman, after which he entered the Kansas City Dental College for the purpose of finishing his dental studies, and in 1889 he was graduated from that institution. Dr. Hiatt began the practice of his profession in Marion in April, 1889, and has since that time maintained an office in the Glass building. He has gained prominence and distinctive favor with the public as a dentist of no slight ability, and is one of the leading men of his profession in this district.

In 1892 Dr. Hiatt was married to Miss Sadie Norcross, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and they have one son, Willard Hiatt.

Dr. Hiatt is prominent in fraternity affairs in Marion and is a Mason of the thirty-second degree, and Shriner as well as having membership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Tribe of Ben Hur. He was one of the founders of the Golf and Country Clubs of Marion, and is an enthusiastic and appreciative member of each of them. He is a man who is well versed in matters of interest pertaining to Marion and Grant county, and articles of his contribution with relation to the early history of Grant county are to be found in the historical section of this work. Dr. Hiatt and his family are prominent socially in Marion, and their home is known as a center of kindly hospitality by their many friends in the community.

HARLEY F. HARDIN. In emphasizing the consistency of this publica- tion it is deemed most fortunate that it is possible to accord within its pages specific recognition to a large and thoroughly representative per- centage of those sterling and honored citizens who are aiding definitely in upholding the high standard of the bench and bar of Grant county, and to such consideration Mr. Hardin is fully entitled, as he is one of the able and successful practitioners of law in the city of Marion,

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the county seat, with a clientage whose prominence and importance affords voucher alike for his technical ability and the confidence reposed in him by the community. He subordinates all else to the demands of his profession and considers it well worthy of his closest application and unqualified fealty. He is a resourceful advocate and excellent counsellor, true to the ethical code of his exacting and responsible calling in which he does all in his power to conserve equity and justice. His success has been largely due to his careful preparation of all cases pre- sented by him before court or jury, and he has been a member of the bar of Grant county since 1901.

Mr. Hardin was born near Livonia, Washington county, Indiana, on the 29th of June, 1876, and is a son of Isaac A. and Susan F. (Thom- erson) Hardin, both representatives of honored pioneer families of the southern part of this state. The lineage of him whose name introduces this article is traced back to Elisha Hardin, who was a native of South Carolina, from which commonwealth he immigrated in an early day to Tennessee. His son John came from Tennessee to Indiana in 1816, the year which marked the admission of the state to the Union, and he became one of the first permanent settlers of Washington county. He was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, on the 12th of June, 1799, and thus was a youth of about seventeen years when he established his home in the wilds of Indiana. He contributed in generous measure to the initial development of Washington county and the family name has been most prominently and worthily identified with the history of that favored section of the Hoosier state. John Hardin was the great-grand- father of the representative lawyer to whom this sketch is dedicated and was a grandson of the founder of the Hardin family in America, the first representative of the line having immigrated from Scotland and established a home in North Carolina in the colonial epoch of our national history. The paternal grandparents of Harley F. Hardin were Andrew Jackson Hardin and Mary A. (Jones) Hardin, both of whom passed their entire lives in Indiana. John Hardin, the founder of the Indiana branch of this staunch old colonial family, was one of the most honored and influential citizens of Washington county in the early days. For many years he served as clerk of all public sales in the county, and he drafted the greater portion of the deeds and mortgages of the people of that county during the pioneer days. He was a man of superior education, as guaged by the standards of his time, and he did much to make educational provisions for the children of the pioneer community. Three of his sons were valiant soldiers of the Union in the Civil war and one of the number met his death in an engagement in Kentucky. Another was Captain John J. Hardin, who was an officer in an Indiana regiment and who is still living, his home being at Salem, Washington county.

On the maternal side the great-grandmother of the subject of this sketch bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Ash, and she was of sturdy Holland Dutch lineage. Mrs. Susan F. (Thomerson) Hardin still main- tains her home in Washington county and is held in affectionate regard by all who have come within the sphere of her gentle and kindly influence, her devoted husband having been summoned to the life eternal in 1896, at the age of forty-four years, and having devoted virtually his entire career to agricultural pursuits, in his native county. Mrs. Susan F. Hardin is a daughter of Isaac and Caroline (Patton) Thomerson, the former of whom still resides in Washington county, having passed the age of four score years, and the latter of whom died a number of years ago, she having been a representative of an old Virginia family.

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Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 25

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

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