Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 54

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

USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial History of Grant County Indiana > Part 54

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).

George Milton Bainbridge came west about 1862, locating at Colum- bia City in Whitley county, where he was married. In 1893 he moved to Marion, where he and his wife both died, he in 1903 and she in 1901. The father was for many years a merchant, but was not in business

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ALBERT E. POWELL, M. D.

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NETTIE BAINBRIDGE-POWELL, M. D.

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after coming to Marion. There were four children, namely : Charles E., a resident in Los Angeles, California; Dr. Powell; Hallie, deceased; Gilbert M., whose home is in Chicago.

Dr. Powell received her primary education at Columbia City. For her higher studies she attended Alma College at St. Thomas, Ontario, where she was graduated in the classical department in 1885. After that she was a student in the Northwestern University and took her final work in medicine at the University of Michigan, where she was graduated M. D. in 1892. During the first years, after leaving college, she was engaged in hospital work, and on September 5, 1893, located in Marion, where her home and field of labors have since been, and she has always enjoyed a liberal share of general medical practice.

On September 5, 1893, she married Dr. Albert E. Powell, a well known physician of Grant county, whose death occurred September 20, 1905. He was born August 2, 1868, at Francisco, Michigan, and met his future wife while both were attending the University of Michigan. The late Dr. Powell for a number of years served as county health officer of Grant county, and was also assistant coroner. He took much interest in politics, and was one of the influential Republicans. The two children of their marriage were: Emily, born February 13, 1898, and Edmund Bainbridge Powell, born April 22, 1901. Mrs. Dr. Powell is a member of the Grant County Medical Society, the Indiana Medical Association and the American Medical Association. She is also by virtue of her colonial antecedents a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and has membership in the Eastern Star. Dr. Powell was appointed by Mayor Batchelor, City Health Officer of Marion. This makes her the first woman Health Officer in the history of the state of Indiana.

JAMES F. HULTS. Seventy-five years of residence in Grant county on the part of the Hults family, of which James F. Hults is a worthy representative, gives the members of the family a prestige in and about the county such as is gained in no other way. He who established the family here in 1838 was a man of large affairs and took a leading place in the community where he made his home, and it is meet that his descendants should take active and intelligent parts in the affairs of their community in these later days.

James F. Hults was born on April 10, 1838, on the home place, and within sight of the place he now occupies. He is a son of Thomas Jefferson and Susanna (Duckwall) Hults, both natives of Ohio. The father was born in 1818 and died in 1863, on the 4th day of October, and the mother, who was born in 1817, died in 1901. They were mar- ried in their native state and came to Grant county in 1838, where the father entered a piece of land in Monroe township traveling with Alex Smith to Fort Morgan to enter the land at the government land office. He later sold his first forty acres at a price of $80 an acre. Consider- ing Thomas Jefferson Hults in the light of those days, he was an excep- tionally prosperous man, and was undeniably one of the best known pioneers of his time. He owned at one time as much as two hundred and eighty acres of land, and was prominent in his town as trustee of Monroe township in the early days, proving himself a capable and efficient servant of the public. Five children were born to him and his wife, namely: Cynthia, who married a Mr. Ferguson and is now de- ceased; James F., of this review; George W., who died in Anderson- ville Prison during the Civil war; Mary Catherine and Margaret both died in the year 1863, as a result of fever, which also caused the death of the father at the same time. This triple tragedy came about

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as a result of Mr. Hults contracting the fever when on a visit to his son during the war, his death following soon after his return home, and the death of the two young girls coming shortly after that of the father.

George W. Hults was a member of the Nineteenth Indiana Cavalry and was a famous fighter. He, too, died during the war, and thus did the Civil war, directly and indirectly, claim a toll of four lives from the Hults family.

James F. Hults was the main support of the family during the war, caring for his own family as well as his parental home during those times of stress and strife. He had married in 1861, Jane Smith, the daughter of Henry Smith becoming his wife. She died in 1889, leaving ten children, concerning whom brief mention is here made as fol- lows: George W., living near Marion; Susanna Fleming, living in Monroe township; John B., now deceased; Thomas William, living in Michigan ; Margaret E. Fleming, of Monroe township; Benjamin F., of Marion, Indiana; Charles, of Monroe township; Mrs. Jennie Boles, of Marion; Oscar and Silas, both living in Illinois.

In 1892 Mr. Hults was married for the second time, Mrs. Melissa (Dickey) Lane becoming his wife. She is a daughter of Robert and Rachael Dickey, natives of Fayette county, Indiana, and Clinton county, Ohio, respectively. Her first husband, Nathan Lane, died in 1888. Three children were born to Mrs. Hults' first marriage: Austin Lane, of Grant county; Ethel Runyan, of Hartford City; and Mrs. Lennia Fleming, of Monroe township.

Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hults: Goldie, who is a graduate of Taylor University; Clarence, Paul and Edward, all at home.

The progress of Mr. Hults in his career is well worthy of considera- tion, and covers a long period of activity. When he was twenty-one years old his father gave him forty acres of land, and the young man soon bought another forty to add to it. Upon the death of his brother, George, he bought from the heirs the eighty acres of land that young man had owned, and he later bought another twenty-five acres of another brother. This purchase was followed by the purchase of eighty acres from George W. Campbell, eighty acres from David Wall, and twenty acres of a Mr. Johnson. His next purchase was forty acres from William Sheridan, and still later he bought one hundred and sixty acres from Blumenthal & Marks, in Van Buren township. With the arrival of mature years of his children, Mr. Hults has given to each of them a fair sized farm, and today he retains only one hundred and fifteen acres from the immense acreage he once held.

In 1881 Mr. Hults built a fine brick house of eight rooms on his place, and a few years later an immense barn was built on the place. He still continues to crop his place, despite his advanced years and in 1912 he harvested twelve hundred bushels of corn from his place, and nine hundred bushels of oats. Fifty hogs annually find their way to market from his pens, and he carries on his farming operations on a large scale.

Mr. Hults is a Prohibitionist, and has voted that ticket consistently for more than forty years. He attends the New Light Christian church, and for many years was a member of the Arcana Masonic lodge of Upland, although he no longer keeps up his affiliation with that order. He is one of the fine old men of the township, and his friends through- out the county are legion.

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CHARLES H. HULTS. Successful and enterprising in his agricultural activities, Charles H. Hults takes a leading place among the younger farming men of Monroe township, where he has passed his life thus far and where he was born December 28, 1873. He is a son of James F. and Mary J. (Smith) Hults, and concerning the parents more de- tailed mention is to be found on other pages of this historical and biographical work.

Charles H. Hults was educated in the district schools and lived at home with his parents until he was nineteen years old. Thereafter he did farm work for hire for some six years, and when he married he rented a place and lived upon it for six more years. He bought his present place in 1904. It is eighty-two and a half acres in extent, and he paid a price of sixty-five dollars an acre for the place, going in debt for more than $2,000, which he was soon able to clear away, and in 1909 he bought an additional twenty acres at sixty dollars an acre. His land is estimated at one hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre, and is in fine shape, considered from every standpoint. In 1912 the place yielded eight hundred bushels of corn, four hundred bushels of oats, and he cut fifteen tons of fine hay. His annual sale of hogs num- bers about eighty. The family residence caps an eminence overlooking the place, and a large lawn with trees and shrubbery in abundance lend additional charm to an already attractive place.

In 1898 Mr. Hults was married to Ida, the daughter of Milton Marshall, of Upland, and they have two children, Letha and Pearl. Mr. Hults is a Democrat in his politics, but not especially active.

GEORGE W. WILSON. Many years ago, when Grant county was a wil- derness, the first Wilson came to this region, settled among the woods of Monroe township, and the people of that name were effective workers in transforming the barren land into cultivated fields. George W. Wilson is a grandson of the original pioneer and occupies a portion of land which has been in the family ownership for more than a half century, a fact in itself which is an honor to the steady industry and citizenship of the people of this name, and the Wilsons have always been known for their quiet prosperity and solid in- tegrity.

George W. Wilson is owner of two hundred and twenty-one acres of land in Monroe township, his home place comprising eighty acres. He and his family occupy an attractive dwelling, a large white build- ing erected in 1897, and standing on a knoll, well back from the road side in front of which is a wide sloping lawn. The large barn was built in 1871, and in 1910 Mr. Wilson, in line with modern progres- sive agricultural methods, put up a fine silo. He has recently bought the old home farm across the road from his place. The first eighty acres of his estate he bought in 1889, and for many years has been steadily prospering. During 1912 his crops were two thousand bushels of corn, one thousand bushels of oats, and twenty-five tons of hay. He puts off about seventy-five head of hogs each year, and is doing his farming on a profitable scale.

George W. Wilson was born July 23, 1862, on the old Wilson homestead across the road from where he now lives. His father, James M. Wilson, died in 1885, and was a native of Virginia, and Grandfather Wilson settled in Grant county among the pioneers. The mother of Mr. Wilson was Martha Renbarger, who was born June 24, 1827, and died November 25, 1912. Her name will always figure in Grant county history, since she was the first white child born in this county, a daughter of Henry Renbarger, whose name belongs among

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the first settlers in the wilderness of this region. She was born four years before Grant county was organized, under civil government. The eight children in the family are mentioned as follows: Thomas, of Marion; James, a farmer of this county; Cynthia Hults, of Marion; Maria Jones, of Kansas; Emma Stout, of Marion; George W .; Jasper, of Marion; Matilda Puckett, of Monroe township.

George W. Wilson received his early education in the schools of Monroe township, and he spent the first twenty-one years of his life at home. He then married and began farming for himself. He built his first house east of his present place on eighty acres of land which he later sold. He then lived with his mother for a few years, and when the estate was divided he bought eighty acres of his present homestead. His next purchase was sixty acres known as the Jackson place. After his mother's death he bought the old homestead. All three of these farms have fairly good buildings, and are productive places under the management of Mr. Wilson.

In 1883 Mr. Wilson married Miss Lydia Gage, of Monroe town- ship. They are the parents of seven children, named as follows: Mrs. Pearl Overman, of Marion; Dona Johnson, of Marion; Leo, Gladys, Lavon, and Beatrice and Bernice, twins, all the last five being at home. In politics Mr. Wilson is a Democrat and' has served his com- munity in the capacity of road supervisor and pike superintendent. The church at which he and his family worship is the Mckinney Chris- tian church.

ISAAC R. WAGGONER. To those who love the soil and the fruits thereof, Pleasant Valley Gardens is an attractive, luring title, suggesting good things for those who have appetite for two or three meals each day- and that means about everybody. In Grant county Pleasant Valley Gardens also suggests their founder and enterprising owner, Isaac R. Waggoner.

Mr. Waggoner is a native of Wabash county, Indiana, born near Lincolnville, June 23, 1866. But as soon as he reached his majority he located in Marion, and is now well known to the business com- munity. His wife, Mrs. Waggoner was Miss Lizzie Nixon, from the same community in Wabash county. They were married May 26, 1888, while he was in the employ of Frank Carlson as a market gardener. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Waggoner are: Miss Anna Wag- goner; Miriam who is the wife of William Bodkins and they have one child, Robert William: Georgia, who is the wife of Virgil Bodkins; Harry Bryan Waggoner and twin sisters, Ruth and Ruby Waggoner. Some of Mr. Waggoner's relatives have been with him as gardeners, but as a family, they all belong to Wabash county.

Mr. Waggoner worked only one year for Mr. Carlson, when he acquired a knowledge of and liking for the business, and his career as a gardener on his own account was begun at the old Boots Mill-site -bottom land along the Mississinewa, and then he moved to Wabash county, where he gardened for two years, still supplying his Marion wholesale vegetable trade. But the distance was against him and he returned to Grant county. At this time he located at the Barley Mill, a short distance below the old Boot Mill site. Pleasant Valley was the sign on that old mill, since torn down and rebuilt on the J. L. Barley farm in Franklin township as a barn. He appropriated the name, the garden land being on both sides of the river, and when he later bought the present Pleasant Valley, part of it had been operated by him as a garden for several years. When Mr. Waggoner first located there he hauled all the garden products through the river and there

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MR. AND MRS. ISAAC R. WAGGONER AND THEIR HOME "PLEASANT VALLEY GARDENS"

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was always danger connected with delivery, but he prospered and acquired his present home up the hill from the first bottoms along the Mississinewa where he has developed one of the best garden spots in . Indiana. The Washington-Pleasant range line passes through the gar- den, but at that point the Mississinewa is the boundary and the property is taxed in Washington and Mr. Waggoner is a Washington township voter. He has 64 acres in high and low lands, and the high land is adapted to small fruits, as the lowlands to vegetables.

The Mississinewa is both his friend and his enemy, and alluvial soil is the nature of the garden. Mr. Waggoner has installed the Skinner irrigation system, utilizing electric power from the Marion Light and Heating Company direct, and each year he will add to his system of pipe lines until he will no longer be dependent upon the weatherman-sun- shine being as frequent as showers in Pleasant Valley.

While Mr. Waggoner is an all-around gardener he has two special- ties, strawberries and canteloupes, and the Waggoner canteloupe is very much in demand on the Chicago market. While he has always sup- plied wholesale trade-Marion dealers-Mr. Waggoner was friendly toward the new-market house proposition and engaged a stand there, but the first season found him still supplying dealers, with neither time nor stock for a stall on the city market. He has always made a spe- cialty of green corn, but the telephone orders from Marion grocers more than consume his product. In short, the man who started market gardening without a dollar and with debt confronting him, has suc- ceeded in business, and he is now a factor in the commercial world of Marion-controls the situation from the standpoint of fruit and vege- tables. There are two small green houses and extensive cold frames for propagation purposes, and cement has served an excellent purpose in their construction. The home is lighted with electricity, and the irriga- tion is accomplished that way, and in time other use will be made of the power. There is a wind pump, and a water system had been installed before the electricity was utilized at Pleasant Valley.

It is only a short walk from Pleasant Valley to the interurban car, but for seven months of the year while there is produce to market the Pleasant Valley wagons are seen about the streets-though in winter the family use the cars. There is rugged scenery-Mississinewa hills, and a winding road from the house to the garden, and picturesque is the word that describes the place, and Mr. and Mrs. Waggoner fully understand how their present comfortable situation has been attained, and they are still laboring as hard as when it was more incumbent upon them. The telephone orders are received from the house or from an extension phone in one of the vegetable packing sheds in the garden, and Pleasant Valley is one of the most profitable farm investments in Grant county-the profit coming from strict attention to all the details of the fruit and vegetable trade-a business that requires care- ful and sensible management. Mr. Waggoner has made an eminent success of it.

SAMUEL WISE. Material prosperity has long been in the possession of Samuel Wise. Mr. Wise has earned all that he has ever acquired, and few men have performed a more skillful and industrious part in the life and activities of Jefferson township during the last thirty or forty years than this citizen, who combines a large industry as a farmer with practice of his trade as a blacksmith and machinist, his home being in section seventeen. A large dwelling house and barn are features of his place which attract attention first of all, and about these buildings his well cultivated fields, his high grade and well kept

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stock all indicate the thrifty and efficient character of the proprietor. Mr. Wise started out with very little more than the average young man of his time had on arriving at manhood, has made a remarkable record of increasing his possessions, and all his accumulations repre- sent his industry and honorable dealing.

Samuel Wise comes from an old Pennsylvania family of Dutch ancestry, and some of its connections were the Viglers and Shaeffers of Center county, Pennsylvania. Samuel Wise, grandfather of Samuel, was born in Center county, Pennsylvania, about one hundred years ago. His early life was spent in his native vicinity, and as a trade he choose woodworking and became a skilled carpenter and joiner. After he came to Indiana, he made practically all the furniture for his home, and it was much superior in design and stability to the average furnishings of Grant county homes in those days. In Center county he married a Miss Shaffer, and all their four sons were born in that county, namely : John, Jacob, Henry, and Samuel. In 1847, the family came to Pennsylvania, and with one horse and a wagon journeyed slowly overland to Indiana, until they reached Grant county. There Daniel Wise first located on a rugged farm in Mill township, and a few years later bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in Jefferson township. This purchase was in section five of that township, and there he applied himself vigorously to the clearing and improvement and cultivation of his land, until with the aid of his wife he had made an excellent farm. The four sons grew up on that place, and the parents finally retired and spent their declining years in the home of their son Jacob. Both were in the fullness of years when death came to them. They were of the fine old type rep- resented by the pioneer, kindly neighbors, upright in all their actions, and left behind them the heritage of a good name. Only one of their sons, Henry, is still living, a well known farmer at Gas City. Samuel died unmarried when twenty-six years of age, and John died some years ago, leaving a family.

Jacob Wise, father of Samuel, was born in Center county, Penn- sylvania, in 1833, and was fourteen years old when the family migra- tion was accomplished to Grant county. On reaching manhood he started out to make his own way, and chose farming as his vocation. He was always regarded as one of the most substantial and success- ful men in his locality, and eventually acquired a large property. After giving all his children a good start he still had two hundred acres, which is now owned and occupied by his widow. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Marine, a sister of Daniel Marine, prominent fam- ily in Grant county, whose history is given in greater detail on other pages. Mrs. Jacob Wise is now seventy-eight years of age. Jacob Wise died on the old homestead in section four of Jefferson township, in the fall of 1909.

Samuel Wise was born on his father's farm in Jefferson township, December 8, 1856. As a boy he attended the public schools when school was in session, and in the holidays and vacation pursued a quite rigid course of duty about the home. On growing up, and after his marriage, he bought eighty acres of land in section seventeen, and there made his start, and that place has been the scene of his most successful achievements. Farming and stock raising were the busi- nesses to which he gave all his attention for a number of years, and as he acquired a little surplus he reinvested in land, increased his estate to one hundred and sixty acres. At the present time his farm has four different sets of buildings, is well provided and equipped for tenant farming. Probably no land in Jefferson township is graded

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to a higher degree of productiveness, and yet with better care for its future fertility, than the Wise farm. His own home has a good dwelling house and excellent barns. A number of years ago, after getting well started as a farmer, Mr. Wise set up on his own land a little shop in order to perform his own blacksmithing. In that trade he had had a little experience, and possessing a natural aptitude for mechanical work, he soon proved himself adept. From doing work for his own convenience, there soon same a demand from his neighbors for help in this way. Thus his trade grew as a matter of personal accommodation, until it became necessary for him to devote practically his entire time and attention, and he set up a shop twenty-five by thirty feet and equipped it with all the appliances for high-grade custom blacksmithing. Since then Mr. Wise has been a blacksmith, first of all, though in the background he has his large farm, and keeps an eye on its cultivation and the raising of his stock, although the actual work is necessarily performed by outside labor. Mr. Wise many years ago made a reputation for his skill in the mending of boilers and tubes, and as his reliability in repairing that very delicate class of machinery became better known he was sent for frequently to use his services in different sections of the county and even beyond the limits of Grant county. Mr. Wise was married in May, 1882, to Miss Sarah Ellen Bole. Mrs. Wise, who has well dignified her place as a wife, and whose many acts of kindliness and charity have given her a place of affection in the community, was born in Jefferson township in 1853, a daughter of George Bole, and of one of the old and well known fam- ilies of Grant county. George Bole was born in Ohio, came to Grant county at an early day, was a farmer in Jefferson township, where he passed away when more than sixty years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Wise have no children, and are members of the Christian church, while in political faith he is a Democrat.

GEORGE HAINES. Grant county has its many beautiful and valua- ble farm estates, some of which have been under one name since the pioneer era of this region. George Haines occupies a portion of the land which was settled by his father nearly seventy years ago, and has himself been closely identified with Monroe township for over forty years. As a farmer and stockman he has made a fine record and he bears a name which has always been associated with honest industry and unimpeachable integrity, in this county.

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Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 54

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

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