Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 33

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

USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial History of Grant County Indiana > Part 33

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Mr. John R. Little who inherited the substantial family characteristic of honest purpose and industrious habits was reared in Fairmount town- ship, and was graduated from the normal department of the Fairmount Academy in 1892. With education as his chosen calling, he qualified as a teacher, and did a successful part in instructing the young in his home township. Since his election to the office of trustee, he has given practically all his time to the administration of the township school system. In the township are several good school houses, built of brick, and most of them are constructed of a modern type. He has under him nine teachers, and through his office has the entire responsibility of hir- ing, placing and paying the teaching staff of the township. The annual fund provided for this purpose by taxation and from other sources in the township amounts to forty-five hundred dollars. In politics Mr. Little is a stanch Republican.

In Fairmount, on May 2, 1900, Mr. Little married Effie Davis, who died in 1906. She was born June 17, 1879. At her death she left a daughter, Mary, who was born August 20, 1901, and is now a student in the public schools. Mr. Little for his second wife was married on March 4, 1913, to Mrs. Ella Moon, whose maiden name was Lamb. She was born in Howard county, Indiana, in 1873, was reared and educated there and was a daughter of William and Artie Lamb. Her father died in 1913, while her mother still lives at Greentown, in Howard county. The Lamb family were Quakers in religion, and Mrs. Little was one of four children. By her marriage to Eslie Moon, now deceased, Mrs. Little had two children, Leo and Emerson, both now nearly grown. Mr. and Mrs. Little belong to the Friends church and are popular members of the social community at Fairmount.

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WILLIAM W. WARE. One of the most enterprising merchants it has ever been the good fortune of Fairmount to claim as a citizen is William W. Ware, head of a large establishment dealing principally in buggies, harness and heavy farm machinery, and for forty years a resident of Grant county. In addition to his keen business ability, Mr. Ware is one of the kind of business men who believe that the best method of doing business is to give value for value. He has therefore won the trust and friendship of every one with whom he has come in contact, and he per- forms a useful part of community service in addition to his business activities.

William W. Ware was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, June 15, 1867. His parents were Joseph B. and Naomi (Mendenhall) Ware. His mother was born in Guilford county, a daughter of Mordecai and Lydia (Pugh) Mendenhall, both natives of North Carolina, Quakers in in religion and farming people, spending all their lives in their native state. Joseph B. Ware was born in Granville county, of North Caro- lina, a son of Henry and Sallie (Hicks) Ware, natives respectively of Virginia and Granville county, North Carolina. They were married in North Carolina and lived to a good old age. Henry Ware was a member of the Episcopal faith, while his wife was a Presbyterian.

Joseph B. Ware and wife were married in Guilford county, North Carolina, and lived there until 1867, during which time their first child William W. was born. The family then moved to the north locating first at Hendricks county, Indiana, near Amo. There the father pur- sued his trade as a plasterer and mechanic for several years. Within that time was born the only other child, Ada. In 1873 the family moved to Grant county, locating two miles southwest of the city of Fairmount. There the father continued to follow his trade as a plasterer contractor, and did work over a large territory for fifteen years. Finally he de- voted all his energies to farming, and is still a resident of the farm and interested in its active management. He is seventy-six years of age, and for the past fifty years never had a day of sickness until the summer of 1912, and is still smart and active. His wife, now seventy-two years of age, is somewhat enfeebled from the weight of years. They are both active members of the Friends church, and the father is a Prohibitionist in politics. Besides William, their only child is Ada, wife of Rev. Oscar H. Trader, a minister in the Friends church and a resident of Fair- mount. Mr. and Mrs. Trader have two children, Cleo, a graduate of the Fairmount Academy, and the wife of Clarence Riggs of Logansport, and Retta, a graduate of the Fairmount Academy and living at home.

William W. Ware was nine years of age when the family moved to Grant county, and he grew to manhood here, and in 1888 was graduated from the Fairmount Academy. His early career was devoted to teach- ing, and he has a record of fifteen years of service in the school room. During all that time he lost only one day through illness. For three years he was principal of the Fowlerton schools in this county, and has the distinction of having organized the consolidated schools in that vicinity. While still following the profession of teaching he became interested in mercantile affairs, and joined Mordecai M. Nixon in the farm implement and machinery business for five years. He was then with O. M. Trader, and in 1899 they established the Fairmount Buggy Com- pany, a concern which was conducted by them for ten years. Mr. Ware then took over the business and conducted it independently two years. At the end of that time he became associated with M. A. Hiatt in the harness and buggy trade, and theirs is now the largest establishment of its kind in southern Grant county. They carry a splendid stock of both high priced and medium priced goods, valued at five thousand dollars.

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They occupy a good store building on north Maine Street, one hundred by twenty-five feet, and also two warehouses for the storage of buggies and harvesting machinery.

In Fairmount township in September, 1895, Mr. Ware married Nettie Dare, who was born in Union county, Indiana, August 1, 1868. She was reared in Knox county, Missouri, to which locality her family moved in 1876. In 1893 they returned to Indiana, and located in Grant county, where she has since lived. Her parents are Robert and Mary (McQuoid) Dare. Her mother died in Grant county at the age of fifty-eight, in August, 1911. Her father is now seventy-three years of age, and has his home in Fairmount city. During the Civil war he was a soldier in an Indiana regiment, and went through the war without wound or capture. Mr. and Mrs. Ware have no children. In politics he is a Prohibitionist and he and his wife take a very prominent part in the Little Ridge Friends church. Mr. Ware is teacher of the Ware Adult Bible Class, one of the largest rural bible classes in the county, with a membership of fifty. Mr. Ware owns a nice country home, a mile and three quarters from Fairmount and has already accumulated a generous competence for his later years. For nine years he gave his services in behalf of local education as a member of the board of trustees of the Fairmount Academy.

WILLIAM H. LINDSEY. Born in Grant county, Mr. Lindsey learned a good mechanical trade, spent many years in building and contracting, and later invested the proceeds of a well spent career in farm lands, being now one of the largest landholders in his part of the county. He lives retired at Fairmount, but has not yet felt the necessity of relaxation on account of age, and enjoys the vigor of life to its full. His family has been represented in Grant county nearly seventy years, and the name has always been associated with substantial worth and integrity.

The family of Lindseys were originally from the north of Ireland and of what is known as Scotch-Irish stock. Between one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and fifty years ago they crossed the Atlantic and located in Guilford county, North Carolina. There the first genera- tions lived and died and were as a rule farmers and mechanics. The history of those early generations is largely lost to record and it is only known definitely that the grandparents of William H. Lindsey lived and died in North Carolina.

Daniel T. Lindsey, father of William H., was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, February 6, 1815, being one in a family of three chil- dren and the only one who came north. His early years were spent on the old Guilford county farm, and when he was about eighteen he bound himself out for his board to serve three years in learning the cabinet maker's trade. After three years of apprenticeship he continued to work for some time for his old employer as a journeyman. At the age of thirty when still unmarried, he left North Carolina, and moved to Indiana. settling in Delaware county. There he met and married Nancy E., a daughter of Hiram and Martha (Leach) Lee. Both her parents were born in Virginia, were married there and then moved to Franklin county, Indiana, where their daughter Nancy was born May 14, 1827. When she was nine years of age, the family in 1836 moved to Delaware county, and there her parents took up anew the burdens of pioneer existence and the responsibility of making a new home in the wilderness. Her father hewed a farm out of the woods, and there he and his wife died, the latter when in middle life, while her father was twice married, after the death of his first companion. He died in the fall of 1876, when about fourscore years of age. There were two sons and one daughter by

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the second wife, and one son by the last marriage. Daniel T. Lindsey was a skilled workman, and followed his trade as a cabinet maker for a few years after his marriage. He then took up carpentry and build- ing, and still later did some farming. After his marriage he lived in Henry county, Indiana, until 1846, in which year he settled in Fair- mount township, and ten or eleven years later moved to Franklin town- ship, this county, where his death occurred January 27, 1899. His widow survived him and died at the home of her daughter Mrs. George Berry in Marion, May 3, 1910. She belonged to the old-school Baptist faith which the father also believed, and this denomination had been the church of their parents before them. Daniel T. Lindsey was a Demo- crat in politics. Daniel T. Lindsey and wife had twelve children. There were five sons and seven daughters, and of these nine grew to maturity, and all were married. Four sons and four daughters are now living.

William H. Lindsey was born in Fairmount township, November 26, 1852. In 1857, when he was five years old the family moved to Franklin township, and it was there that he spent his boyhood days and was reared and educated. The school he attended was the old Baptist school house, two miles west of Roseburg. Later he turned his attention to the practical things of life, learned carpenter work under his father, and made that trade the basis of a successful business career. February, 1872, he moved to the city of Fairmount, where his skill as a builder and reliability as a contractor brought him a large patronage. He built a great many homes in Fairmount, and dwelling houses and barns throughout the country in that vicinity. In 1887 he abandoned his trade, and in the spring of the following year established at Fairmount a saw and plane- ing mill and lumber yard. This was a prosperous business establish- ment, and was continued by him until 1901 when he sold out. He then bought six hundred and twelve and a half acres of land in Liberty town- ship. His possessions in that township comprise some of the finest farm lands in the county and all of it is in an excellent state of cultiva- tion and improvement. He has six sets of farm buildings on the land, and all the tenants are well provided for and are a prosperous and substantial little colony of farmers. Mr. Lindsey himself lived on the farm three years, but then returned to his city home. He owns a beauti- ful residence at 304 E. Washington Street in Fairmount. As a farmer he has made an exceptional success in the raising of corn, wheat, oats, hay and clover, and has made a practice of feeding nearly all his crops on his own land. In Jefferson township of Grant county, on March 8, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of William H. Lindsey to Miss Sarah D. Couch. Mrs. Lindsey was born in Grant county on the old Jefferson township homestead of her parents September 16, 1855. Her home has been in this county all her life, she was reared and educated here, and her family name has long been honorably identified with this section of the state. Her parents were Samuel and Nancy (Furnish) Couch, natives respect- ively of Indiana and Ohio. They were married in Jefferson township, Grant county, and began their married life in this county. Her father died at the age of sixty-two and her mother passed away on Christmas Day of 1901 at the age of seventy. The Couches were of the old-school Baptist Faith. They were the parents of seven children, all of whom married, and all had children except one, who died soon after marriage.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey are noted as follows: 1. Vella was born November 28, 1877, and is the wife of J. Otto Fink, assistant superintendent of the Premier Auto Company of Indianapolis; their three children are William, and Vella, both in the city high school, and Mary E., aged fourteen. 2. Evva, born March 15, 1881, was edu- cated in the Fairmount high school, and is now the wife of Charles H.

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Hubbard, a glass manufacturer at San Springs, Oklahoma. Their children are Margaret E., aged ten, and Catherine, aged six. 3. Burr died at the age of three years. 4. Guy died when aged ten months and eleven days. 5. John C. born November 16, 1895, is now a member of the Fairmount High School Class of 1915. The church attendance of the family is at the Congregational, and Mr. Lindsey is a Democratic voter. Fraternally he has taken both the lodge and chapter degrees in Masonry at Fairmount, and is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Hackelman.

SANTFORD LITTLE. Not only through his enterprise as a successful farmer has Mr. Little contributed to the permanent prosperity of Grant county, but has exercised his inventive ability in the perfection of devices for the lightening of human labors on farms throughout many states, and as he is still young his activities in this direction may be considered only to have fairly begun, and his career will have many successful accomplishments to record during the subsequent years. Mr. Little on his mother's side is descended from the McCormick family, so prominent since pioneer days in this section of Indiana, and related to the McCor- mick family which produced the inventors and manufacturers of the early reapers, and first successful harvesting machines. Perhaps from

this side of the house Mr. Little has inherited his inventive turn of mind. His adjustable device for a spring seat is one of his improvements, and the upright stay for hay racks has been patented and has been sold over a wide territory, and is one of the best things on the market for hay wagons. Mr. Little has also perfected a unique machine for picking up hogs and turning them over in order to operate on them for vaccination and altering, and this invention finds much favor among veterinary sur- geons. Another farm implement bearing the name of Mr. Little as pat- entee is his hog ringing machine, which operates with great rapidity and causes less pain than the old and slower process.

In his farm operations Mr. Little pursues the modern and scientific method of rotation of crops, and is what might be called a mixed farmer, using his land to raise crops and feeding all the products to the stock on the place, thus preserving and increasing the fertility of the soil. His place in section five of Jefferson township comprises one hundred and sixty acres of land, and practically all of it is well improved and very little land goes to waste under the management of Mr. Little. The fruit orchards are one of the attractive features of the Little farm and his stock are of the very best grades.

Santford Little was born in Fairmount township, in Grant county, July 18, 1877, a son of Joel and Sarepta (McCormick) Little. Both parents were born in Indiana, the father born in Randolph county and mother in Grant county, and they are of the old pioneer stock in Grant county. More will be found concerning the ancestry and earlier genera- tion of the family in this county on other pages of this history. Joel Little after his marriage lived on a farm in Fairmount township, where his wife died in 1887 at the age of thirty-four, and he passed away in Au- gust, 1897, being then fifty years of age. The Little family are Quakers in religion. Santford Little grew up in his native township, was educated only in the common schools, and since youth has applied himself to farm- ing. Practically all his inventions have grown out of his close observa- tion of the needs of practical devices about a farm, and he is deserving of great credit for his ability in perfecting machines and improvements which supply a want perhaps long appreciated by other farmers, none of whom have had the practical ability to fill the vacancy.

Mr. Little was married in Madison county, Indiana, to Mary G.

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MR. AND MRS. SANTFORD LITTLE AND DAUGHTER

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Thurston, who was born and educated in that county, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Welsh) Thurston. Her parents were prominent and successful farmers and owned five hundred acres of well improved land in Madison county. Both are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Little are the parents of two children : Lawrence W., born September 22, 1901, died February 15, 1904; Hazel M., born March 23, 1903, is a student in the Matthews public schools. Mr. Little and wife attend the Baptist church and in politics he is a Republican voter.

EARL MORRIS. An honorable record of lives worthily lived, of duties and obligations well performed is that of the Morris family, in whose younger generation is Earl Morris, present town clerk and treasurer of Fairmount. Few Grant county families go back further in American residence and, like so many other substantial people of this section, the early stock was Carolina Quakers, the religion of simplicity being still a marked family trait.

The Morris family, of English stock, came to America during the early colonial days, perhaps two hundred years ago, locating in North Carolina, and being represented in that old commonwealth for a number of generations. Adequate data is not at hand concerning the first genera- tion, and the first of the family concerning whom there is definite infor- mation was Thomas, who was born in North Carolina, was a Quaker, and farmer, and spent all his days in his native state. He married Sarah Musgrove, also of a Quaker family, and she probably died in Randolph county. They had a large family of ten children, four sons and six daughters.

Aaron Morris, son of Thomas, was the second in the family and was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, January 4, 1791. He died in May, 1832, in Indiana. He married Nancy Thomas, who was born October 27, 1800, in North Carolina, and died March 2, 1832, in Wayne county, Indiana. They both sleep their last sleep side by side in the cemetery at Fountain City. They were among the early founders of the Quaker church in Indiana, were upright, god-fearing, and thrifty people. They were probably married in North Carolina, and it appears that they became residents of Indiana, about 1818, locating at Fountain City, in Wayne county. In the family of Aaron Morris and wife were five chil- dren, mentioned as follows: William was born in 1820, married Margaret Jones, and they left one son and two daughters; John T., was the grand- father of Mr. Earl Morris, and is mentioned at greater length in suc- ceeding paragraphs; Anna, died in Indiana; Jesse married and at his death in Michigan left a family, and the last twenty-seven years of his life were spent in blindness. Hannah was the second wife of Axium Elliott, and died at the age of twenty-four, being buried in Marion, I. O. O. F. cemetery, without children.

John T. Morris, grandfather, was born at Fountain City, Indiana, November 22, 1821. When he was eleven years old he lost his father by death, and as both parents died about the same time, in Grant county, Indiana, the children were scattered and taken into other homes to be reared. John T. went to Grant county, and was bound out to Silas Overman, working on the farm as a bound boy until he had completed his apprenticeship at the age of twenty-one. He was then ready to make his independent start, having received for all his labor only his board and clothes, and had a few dollars and a pair of overalls as extra clothing when he started for himself. In 1846, four years after he had reached his majority, on the twenty-second day of April, he married Rebecca Jay, who was born in Indiana, September 15, 1827, and who died August 29, 1868, in Illinois. John T. Morris lived on a farm in Grant

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county for a number of years, later moved to Illinois, spent some time in the far northwest in the state of Oregon, afterwards returned to Indiana, and lived first in Rush county, and later at Newcastle, in Henry county. He still lives at Newcastle, being a remarkably well preserved old gentleman, who has never been obliged to wear glasses and has his hearing almost perfect. He is an intelligent reader, and has had many exceptional experiences during a long career. He has been a life long member of the Quaker church, and in politics, has always voted for the prohibition cause. During his residence in Rush county he married for his second wife Sarah Ann Gray, a native of Indiana, who died in Rush county. For his third wife he married Mrs. Emily (Macey) Winslow, who is now past seventy-six years of age. There were no children by the second and third marriages, but those by his first wife were as follows: 1. Thomas Elwood, born February 9, 1847, now a resi- dent of Florida, and by his first marriage had children Charles L. Clark- son D., and William. By his second wife he was the father of Myrtle, Earl, Esther, and Harry, all of whom are living but Esther. 2. Aaron, born January 25, 1849, died June 29, 1876, unmarried. 3. Mary Eliza, born March 17, 1852, died in August, 1887, in Grant county, Indiana. She married Christopher Porter, also deceased. They had four children: Anna, John, Lizzie, and Florence, all of whom are deceased. 4. Bryon, born July 7, 1854, married Elizabeth Hodson, and is a dentist at Portland, Oregon. Their children are Willis, Chester, and Lewis. 5. Luther Lee was born June 6, 1857, and is mentioned in the following paragraphs. 6. Eli O. was born December 21, 1859, and died unmarried July 1, 1876. 7. Emma was born March 28, 1863, and died January 17, 1878. 8. Daniel, born August 20, 1865, with present whereabouts unknown, but if he is living he is probably in Alaska.

Luther Lee Morris was born in Indiana, spent most of his early life and received his education in Rush county, and grew up on a farm. After he became of age he located in Grant county, took up farming, and was also engaged in tile manufacturing. For some time he resided at Marion, and was a street paving contractor for a time. Later he engaged in the wood and fuel business, and about twenty years ago moved to Fairmount. He is now street commissioner of the town of Fairmount. In politics he is a Republican.

Mr. Luther .L. Morris was twice married. His first wife was Ida Leapley, who was born in Marion, and who died in that city in the prime of life. Her one son was William Clifford Morris, now a farmer west of Marion, who married Fay Stephens, and has one son, Harry Luther. The second marriage of Mr. Morris was to Melissa Draper of Marion. She was born in Grant county on a farm, May 5, 1863, and is still living. Her parents died when she was a child, and she was reared in the home of her grandfather, Hezikiah Nelson. She is the mother of Earl, and Otto. The latter was born January 14, 1890, a graduate of the Fairmount public schools and the Fairmount Academy, now living at home with his father and mother, and working as a lineman for the local telephone company.

Earl Morris was born at Marion, June 13, 1886. His early life until he was eight years old was passed within the limits of his native city and he began attending school there. Later he was a student in the Fair- mount public schools, and graduated from the graded school in 1901, and from the Fairmount Academy in the German Scientific and Teach- er's Courses. His first regular position in life was as a teacher, and he followed that vocation actively for seven years. Three years of this time were spent as principal at Fowlerton public school. In the fall of 1911 Mr. Morris was elected town clerk and treasurer of Fairmount,

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Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 33

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

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