Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 52

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

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Born in Madison county, Ohio, on April 1, 1837, Thomas S. Thomp- son is the son of Thomas L. and Mary (Davenport) Thompson, both natives of Ross county, Ohio, born of Virginia parents. Ignatius Thompson, grandsire of the subject, came in an early day from his native state, Virginia, to Ohio, and in that state purchased six hundred acres of land in the river bottoms of the Scioto in Ross county. He in later life went to Louisiana, there contracting yellow fever and dying. His family was well established in Virginia and dates its residence there from the early days of the Virginia colony. Mary Davenport, mother of the subject, was a daughter of Anthony Simms Davenport, who was at one time a large plantation owner and slave holder in the state of Virginia, and as a man of especially wide- minded characteristics, he, with the beginning of the anti-slavery agitation, openly took sides with the abolitionists. While he was not wholly in sympathy with the methods and line of procedure of that faction, still he felt himself in the wrong in the matter of owning human beings, and he accordingly disposed of his interests in his old home and came north to Ohio, bringing his slaves with him, and there liberating them, it not being against the laws of the state as in Virginia. It should be mentioned, however, that his slaves refused to be separated from him, even after having gained their freedom, and continued to make their homes on his place until they married or found suitable homes elsewhere, many of them staying with him until death claimed them. So it was often the case in the days of slavery, that those men who were just enough to see the injustice of their positions and methods, were also great enough that their slaves valued the affection of the master beyond mere liberty, and refused in many instances to accept their legal freedom with any degree of enthusiasm.

Anthony Simms Davenport settled in the Scioto valley, near Chillicothe, Ohio, at a time when there was but one log cabin in that vicinity. This was in the year 1800, and the fact that he liber- ated his slaves, some thirty-five in number, in that early date, proves him to have been a man of mature judgment and of many splendid qualities of heart and mind that placed him far in advance of his fellow men. His name deserves a place in the memorial records of this state, to which he migrated in order that he might be at liberty to give expression to those humanitarian ideas that had but little

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place in this country one hundred years ago, but which in less than fifty years after he first expressed them, came to be the vital issues of the nation. Mr. Davenport was a kinsman of the well known Simms and Marmaduke families of the south, many of the name being found in the southern states today, and occupying positions of prominence wherever they are found. They are reckoned among the First Families of Virginia, and as such are entitled to the high regard and considera- tion that is accorded to them.

In 1800 Anthony Simms Davenport came to Ross county, Ohio, he being one of the first men to settle there, and in that county he became well-to-do and influential. He was twice married and reared a family of children by each marriage. They were of the Methodist Episcopal faith, as were also the Thompsons, and people of sturdy Christian character all their days, living exemplary lives in their several com- munities and gaining the esteem and regard of all with whom they came in contact.

Thomas L. Thompson was born in Ross county, Ohio, in the year 1804, and he was one of the six children of his parents to reach years of maturity and rear families, the others having died in early years. He was reared on the old farm in the Scioto valley, and there he married Miss Mary Davenport, whose family history has been set forth at some length in previous paragraphs. After the birth of their first four chil- dren Mr. and Mrs. Thompson moved to Madison county, Ohio, and there settled on a new farm some four miles south of London. This place he later sold and purchased land in Jefferson township, Madison county, and there he passed his remaining days, death claiming him there in 1870 when he was in the sixty-sixth year of his age. He was a man of many noble traits, worthy of his parentage, and fit in every respect to perpetuate the family name. His many sterling qualities made him a man beloved of all, and if he had a fault it was nothing more than a virtue gone to seed-that of his too great faith in human nature. Over-confidence in his fellow men caused him the loss of three separate fortunes, but after each loss he came up smiling, ready to begin work over again and with his faith untarnished by an experience that would surely have embittered a less noble man. He died as he had lived-believing implicitly in the trustworthiness of the rank and file of humanity, and there were many who mourned his loss and felt themselves bereft of a true friend when death called him.

He was a man who worked hard all his days and he was one of the successful agricultural men of the county. He knew every detail of farm life, and no man could excel him in the field with reaping hook or cradle. He was all his days a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and an active worker therein, and in his politics was a stanch Republican, though a Whig in earlier life. His widow survived him for some years and died in Madison county in 1877, aged seventy years. She, too, had been a hard working member of the Methodist church all her days, and her life was an exemplary one in its every detail. To them were born five sons and five daughters, brief mention here being made of certain of them who reached mature life. Mary A. died, leaving a family. Angoletta also married and left a family at her passing. Newton died five years ago in Ohio, as did also a sister, Jane. Rebecca is the wife of Samuel Johnson, now in Plain City, Ohio, and the mother of a family. Thomas S. was the next born. Nancy J. died after her marriage, leaving a family, and a number of others died in infancy.

Thomas S. Thompson was reared in his native county in Ohio. His opportunities for education were limited, and he devoted himself to farm life from his early manhood to the end of his days. He came to

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Jasper county, Indiana, in 1880, purchasing a partly improved farm of one hundred and twenty acres, and there living quietly and busily until 1892, when he came to Gas City and here engaged in the whole- sale meat business. In this business Mr. Thompson accumulated suffi- cient of worldly wealth that in 1908 he felt himself able to retire per- manently from business life, and today the extent of his business activities is that of giving some attention to certain realty properties from which he derives a modest income. Mr. Thompson is regarded as one of the solid and wholesome men of the community, and his reputa- tion among his fellow men for reliability and business acumen is one of which he is well worthy as the son of his father.

Mr. Thompson has been a lifelong Republican and he cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, ever since that time voting the party ticket straight. He has never sought or held office, giving his aid to the community in other ways quite as far reaching and effective.

In 1881 Mr. Thompson married Miss Anna R. Lithe in Madison county. She was born in that county on April 8, 1858, and she died at her home on South East street, Gas City, on the 25th of April, 1905. She was a daughter of Henry Lithe, who still lives in Marion, a retired farmer for some years past. He had a long and busy career in the agricultural field of labor and he was eighty years old when he retired from his work. Mr. Lithe was born in Germany and came to America when he was twenty years of age. In Franklin county, Ohio, he married Therese Lang, who was born in Ohio of German parents, and she died in Marion, Indiana, in 1910, well advanced in years.

To Mr. and Mrs. Thompson there were born three children. Ide M. was born in Ohio in 1880, and she is now the wife of Thomas Pierce, living in Marion. They have three children-Omar, Raymond and a baby daughter. Walter C., the second child of his parents, was born in Jasper county, Indiana, on August 15, 1882. He is a resident of Mason City, Iowa, where he is employed in a cement plant. He has one son, Max Thompson. Chester Allen, born in Jasper county, Indiana, October 9, 1886, was, like the other two, educated in the public schools. He is unmarried and makes his home with his father.

The family have been reared in the Methodist faith, both parents having long been members therein, and Mr. Thompson is a Prohibitionist. It is his boast that he has never spent a penny for intoxicating liquor in a saloon since he came to Indiana. He is a man of many excellent qualities, and he has a secure place in the confidence and esteem of the leading people of the community, which he well deserves by reason of his character and achievements.

ANDREW JACKSON LUGAR. Said Colton: "It is not known where he who invented the plow was born, or where he died; yet he has effected more for the happiness of the world than the whole race of heroes and conquerors that drenched it with tears and saturated it with blood, and whose birth, parentage, and education have been handed down to us with a precision exactly proportionate to the mis- chief they have done." Farming is a noble profession and also a very profitable one as conducted by the enterprising men of Grant county, among whom is Andrew Jackson Lugar who has spent all his career in this county, and belongs to one of the oldest of the pioneer families.

The fine estate of Mr. Lugar is located on section six of Monroe township, where he is the owner of two hundred and seventy-eight acres of land. All of this is in cultivation, except twenty acres in timber. Near the roadside is his large ten-room house, painted brown, and erected in 1893. He has a large red barn, forty by sixty feet,

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erected in 1901, also another barn, erected in 1906, besides a sheep barn, thirty-six by forty feet, and other farm buildings. In 1912 Mr. Lugar produced from his land two thousand bushels of corn, eight hundred bushels of oats, cut forty tons of hay, and sold fifty head of hogs. In 1913 he has on his pasture fifty head of sheep, and specializes in this branch of the livestock industry. He has eleven horses, twenty- eight cattle and sixty hogs. He has been identified with farming and stock-raising for many years, and is one of the men who have made a record of exceptional success.

Andrew J. Lugar was born July 8, 1852, in Washington township of Grant county, a son of Joseph and Mary (Wilson) Lugar, both of whom were natives of Virginia. Joseph Lugar was the son of George Lugar, who in the late twenties settled on Lugar Creek in Grant county, and by his own efforts and also with the aid of his family took a very important part in making Grant county, the home of industry and of a high class of people. Joseph Lugar, the father, died in 1854, and reared a family of eleven children. The family record is given in more detail in a sketch of Joseph Lugar, printed elsewhere in this work.

Andrew J. Lugar as a boy attended the district schools of Washing- ton township. He is one of the few men still living who spent a por- tion of their youth in an old log school house. He recalls that the old structure he attended when a boy was of the primitive type, had a rough floor, a poorly lighted interior, and crude furnishings, while the instruction was of the type usually called the Three R's. His father was one of the largest land holders and most prosperous farmers in the county, and acquired about twelve hundred acres of land. The son Andrew lived at home until he was about twenty-six years of age, and then began for himself by farming his mother's land on shares for three years. In 1881 he made his first purchase of one hundred and seventy acres, of partially cleared land, and without any buildings on it. This original purchase is a portion of the estate above described, and has been improved in a remarkable manner since he first became owner of it. He paid twenty-five dollars an acre for land that is now worth one hundred and fifty dollars, and a large part of its value has been conferred by his own management and hard labor. He has added four additional tracts to his first purchase, making his present estate one of two hundred and seventy acres.

In 1877, Mr. Lugar married Mary Emery, a daughter of John Emery, one of the old settlers of Grant county. Mrs. Lugar died in 1891, leaving three children, namely: James, a farmer in Michigan; Andrew, a telegraph operator in Chicago; and Mrs. Isabelle Speaights, living on the home farm. In 1893, Mr. Lugar married for his second wife, Norah Morrison, a daughter of Joseph Morrison, of Van Buren township. The children of this marriage number five, namely : Joseph O., who is a bookkeeper in Van Buren; Dolly, at home; William Hobart, a student in the high school; Lelah, and Ruth, both at home. Mr. Lugar is a Republican in politics, and is affiliated with the Landess- ville Lodge of Odd Fellows. In November, 1912, Mr. Lugar suffered the loss of his right hand, which was caught in a corn shredder.

JORDAN FUTRELL. More than three score and ten years have been spent by Jordan Futrell within the limits of Grant county. A few years ago he retired from a successful career as a farmer and moved into Upland, where he now lives in peace and comfort, enjoying the resources accumulated by his early industry, and has a pleasant retrospect over the long past. Mr. Futrell is one of the men who has

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MR. AND MRS. JORDAN FUTRELL

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seen Grant county develop from the time of log cabin homes, and when the only transportation was by wagon trail, through the early railroad age, and through all the marvelous developments of the twen- tieth century.

His grandfather was Enos Futrell, who probably was a native of England, and early in life settled in North Carolina, where he lived until death, both he and his wife having attained good old age. Of their children Michael Futrell, who was born in North Carolina about 1805, grew up there and in the course of time centered his affection upon a girl whose home was in the same vicinity. Subsequently her family moved north to Ohio, and that caused Michael Futrell to leave his native state, and follow her to the new country. On horseback he accomplished the entire journey over the mountains and across the valleys to Clinton county, Ohio, where he established a farm and was soon afterwards united in marriage with Miss Mary Rix, the North Carolina girl who was responsible for this change of residence. They lived in Clinton county until three of their children were born, and then about 1840 broke up their Ohio home and moved to Grant county, Indiana. They located near Lugar Creek, on a farm which had some improvements, and there Michael continued his labors for a number of years. Later he sold his first place and bought eighty acres in Mill township near the county poor farm. That was the home on which both he and his wife spent their last years, and at his death in 1883 he was past seventy-one years of age, while his wife attained to the venerable age of ninety-one, and kept her faculties until the last. Both were members of the New Light Christian Church, and in politics he was a Democrat.

Jordan Futrell, who was the second among the children of his parents, and who has one brother and two sisters still living, was born in Clinton county, Ohio, November 15, 1835. He was a very small child when he came to Grant county, and his earliest recollec- tions were centered about the old home on Lugar Creek, and all his education was supplied by the district schools of that locality. He reached his majority after the family had moved to Mill township, and after several years of work and experiments in different direc- tions he bought forty acres in Monroe township. Industry and good judgment as a farmer, enabled him to gradually increase his holdings, until he had eighty acres, and though not one of the largest, this, under his direction became as fine a farm in the volume and quality of its products as any that can be found in the township. Among the improvements he built two excellent barns and a fine country house. Mr. Futrell's active career as a farmer continued until 1902, in which year he moved to Upland, and four years later sold his farm and gave over the cares of an active life. He owns an excellent piece of property on Irwin Street, where he has his home.

In Mill township in 1858, Mr. Futrell married Miss Rebecca Bal- linger. She was born near Marion in 1834, and grew to womanhood in Grant county. The Ballinger and the Futrell farms lay side by side in Mill township, and this was the case of two young people growing up and knowing each other from childhood, and later uniting the destinies of their individual lives in married union. Mrs. Futrell was a daughter of John and Betsey (Burson) Ballinger, who were early settlers of Grant county, but later in life went out to Fremont county, Iowa where they died. The Ballingers were members of the Friends Church. Mr. and Mrs. Futrell have the following children: Mary E., wife of John Doller, a farmer in Monroe township, and has two children, Laura and Ruth; Nancy E. is the wife of. Jasper Hobson,

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a farmer, and they have two daughters, Ethel and Zelda, also one son, Everd; she first married Thomas Shannon who died, leaving a daughter, Rebecca, who is now living with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Futrell; Emma died after her marriage to William Bird, and left three sons, James C. and Jordan L., twins, and Ralph. Mr. and Mrs. Futrell have four great-grandchildren living.

WILL C. JAY. When there were but few settlers about Jonesboro the name Jay was placed in the Grant county directory, and the tradi- tions of the family center about Samuel Jay of Deep River Quaker stock, Deep River, North Carolina, having been an anti-slavery strong- hold in a country where human beings were in servitude.

Will C. Jay of Gas City is a well known representative of this branch of the Jay family, there being many distinctive Jay family relation- ships in the county, but the Samuel Jay descent antedates all of them. While David Jay, who is mentioned in the Mill Township and the Friends' Church chapters, was the first of his immediate family to locate at Jonesboro, and while he came direct from Miami county, Ohio, his father, Samuel Jay, who left the Carolinas in the exodus of Quakers to the Northwest Territory early in the nineteenth century, was then a member of his household and he lies buried at Back Creek -a genuine Deep River Quaker buried a "stranger in a strange land." and all for conscience' sake. He was opposed to human slavery. His grave is among those marked with. quarry stones at the instigation of Northern Quarterly Meeting of Friends, already mentioned in the chapter on County Cemeteries.

W. C. Jay is a son of Elisha Benson and Ann (Scott) Jay, and the death of his father, April 7, 1904, was the final chapter in the family history of David and Sarah (Jones) Jay who came in 1835 in a wagon train from Miami county, Ohio, settling on a farm west of Jonesboro, living there one year before the town came into existence. This Jay farm is now owned by Fred Schrader. Some of the chil- dren were born in Ohio and some in Indiana. They were: Job, Ver- linda, who married D. M. V. Whitson; Lydia; Elisha, who married Ann Scott; Samuel; Thomas; William, who married Martha Ellen Howell; Susannah, who married Hezekiah Miller; and the first born, who died in infancy. All who married left posterity, and there are a number of Jays in the fourth generation of the family. Thomas and Samuel Jay later joined their brother and father at Jonesboro, and through Samuel, Sr., David and Elisha, Will C. Jay is in the fourth generation of Jays in Grant county. Through Mrs. Verlinda Jay Whitson, Charles J. Whitson and Verlinda Belle Johnston, there have been five children born in the sixth generation-a record not attained by all pioneer families, although the name Jay disappeared in the third generation of that branch of the family.

Samuel Jay, the original Carolina emigrant, did not sustain active business relations with the community in Grant county, but his sons had much to do with the development and early history of Jonesboro. Thomas Jay was among the emigrants from Jonesboro to Kokomo, when the first railway enterprise failed in Grant county. He had con- ducted a general store and operated a pork-packing plant there, and went to Kokomo to secure shipping facilities. He impressed himself on the Howard county metropolis, and his children are still Kokomo residents. Samuel Jay, who reared a family in Jonesboro, was for many years associated in the Jay & Bell Dry Goods store, an establish- ment rivaling Marion stores at the time Jonesboro was bidding for the Grant county court house to be located there. David Jay, grand-

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father of Will C. Jay, was always an agriculturist, and a man of strong convictions. "You could not influence old David Jay against what he thought was right," and he was an active Abolitionist during underground railway vicissitudes in Grant county. Old Slave Mammy Wallace always told of the protection given her when she was a refugee by David Jay, Jonathan Hockett, and Nathan Coggeshall, a group of Abolitionists west of Jonesboro. While she never reached the "cold and dreary land" of Canada, the old woman always had kindly recollections of David Jay. He allied himself with Antislavery Friends and helped to establish Deer Creek Antislavery Meeting. When he died at sixty-four he had read the Bible through once for each year on his balance sheet of time. He enjoyed a lasting friend- ship with Meshingomesia and whenever the Miami chieftain was hunt- ing along the upper course of the Mississinewa, he always stopped and cooked a meal at the Jay farmstead near Jonesboro, and all the Indians accompanying him always slept under shelter-hospitality similar to that received from Samuel McClure in Marion.

In war times David Jay sold his farm at Jonesboro and bought the William Howell farm (the old Billy Howell place) when the Howell family emigrated to Iowa, and it was one of the best devel- oped farms with the first two-story log house ever built in Liberty township on Deer Creek. This farm in Liberty has not changed ownership often, its succession of owners being Howell, Jay, Whitson, Sutton, Stiers, from the government title secured by William Howell. With his family David Jay had much to do with the organization of the Bethel church in 1864 (see sketch of Willis Cammack) and at the time of his death he was the recognized head of the meeting. He was the typical Quaker, and there was no sham in his nature. It was in 1847 that David Jay's cousin, Denny Jay, located north of Jonesboro -the Jesse Jay homestead at present-and since their wives were sisters (Sallie and Polly [Jones] Jay), the Jay-Jones family which meets in annual reunion is the descendant relationship. The name Jay and the word Quaker were synonyms-interchangeable terms-in the early history of Grant county, but subsequent amalgamation has done much to change many family histories in this respect.

Besides Will C. Jay, the other children of Elisha B. and Ann (Scott) Jay were as follows: Miss S. Alice Jay; Edgar B. and Charles A. Jay ; Thomas F. Jay, who died after reaching manhood and is survived by a daughter, Miss Belle Jay; and James M., who died in infancy.

On August 31, 1889, W. C. Jay married Miss Cora Hill, daughter of Nathan and Emaline Hill. Their children are: Fred W., William A., Otis H., and Richard H .; James, the second in order of birth, died at the age of six years; and Mary died in a beautiful young womanhood.

Will C. Jay was a school teacher from 1884 to 1892, and after hav- ing a family about him went to the Eastman National Business Col- lege at Poughkeepsie, New York, where he learned bookkeeping and completed the study of stenography, having taken some work in short hand while a student in the Valparaiso Normal School. Mr. Jay acquired a full knowledge of shorthand at an opportune time. The development of the Gas City Land Company in 1892 afforded him a position which he retained as long as the company was in existence, and he still transacts business for members of the company since the dissolution of partnership. The Gas City Land Company maintained an office in Gas City from 1892 until the Century year, and four years later the company dissolved and the separate shareholders in realty

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Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 52

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

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